“Give me some mothafuckin’ OJ!”
I felt something magical as I entered the Cherry Lane Theatre last Saturday to see Asuncion, a new play written by and starring Jesse Eisenberg. It’d only taken me 25 years and hundreds of theatre-going experiences, but here I was, finally, at the Cherry Lane, a theatre with some much history behind it.
But this isn’t about the Cherry Lane, it’s about Eisenberg’s new play Asuncion about a nerdy, socially awkward kid (does that sound familiar?), Edgar, who sleeps on a beanbag chair in his former TA’s (played by Justin Bartha) living room in Binghamton (upstate New York) and the trouble Edgar gets himself into when Vinny (his TA) plants the thought that his brother’s new wife, Asuncion (whom the brother, Stuart dumps there while he “takes care of some business”), might be a mail-order-bride/prostitute from the Pacific.
Vinny and Asuncion get on famously, while Edgar strains to make even the slightest human connection with her - him being socially awkward and whatnot. Vinny puts him in his place at one point, and Edgar is heart broken and the audience is heart broken with him. Camille Mana is endearing as Asuncion and Remy Auberjonois is pretty much the typical Wall Street asshole you’d expect him to be as Edgar’s brother Stuart.
The performances through out are enjoyable and the script is always entertaining throughout the two acts. Asuncion closes tomorrow, but I don’t think this is the last time you’ll be hearing from Eisenberg as a writer. I tried to get a clear picture of Mr. Eisenberg after the show without the flash but he was moving too much.
Visit the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre’s website here for more information.
