Mostly Waning
Theatergoer, take heed of the phrase a speculation on the program for An Error of the Moon. Luigi Creatores new play, about 19th-century actors and brothers Edwin and John Wilkes Booth (yes, that John Wilkes Booth) has little relation to historical fact other than the very basics.
Weaving a tapestry of madness and envy, Creatore re-imagines Edwin Booth, played here by Erik Heger, as a diabolically jealous husband who suspects that his wife Mary (Margaret Copeland) is having an illicit affair with his brother John (Andrew Veenstra). For 80 minutes, Edwin recounts his marriage and his brothers increasingly frenzied attempts to punish Abraham Lincoln for his transgressions against the South, slipping further into insanity and cuing plenty of Othello references. At his lowest point, Creatores Edwin asks Maryon her deathbedif their daughter is really his.
Heger turns out to be a surprisingly capable performer, turning Creatores 2-dimensional Edwin into a tortured man who cant even find comfort in the ghost of his wife. When the play hews closer to historyas when John Wilkes discusses his plans to kidnap Lincolnthe play and the performances turn engrossing. Too often, though, Edwin rages and raves over some perceived clue that his brother is making a cuckhold of him, while the wan Mary simpers and flutters.
Copeland doesnt have much else to do as the much put-upon Mary, but she also doesnt bring much to the role. Mary is either sickeningly sweet or hurt, with very little gradation between the two. And though Veenstra is a dynamic physical presence (his sword fight with Heger is both tense and witty), we know that no matter how boyishly charming his John Wilkes, the character doesnt come to a good end.
Somewhat surprisingly for a show in the lower level of Theatre Row, the set from Steven Capone and Alixandra Gage Englunds costumes are sumptuous and arrestingparticularly Capones crooked door and sideways chandelier, dangling tantalizingly in mid-air.
Director Kim Weild keeps things moving swiftly, but theres little to be done with Creatores repetitive script. Edwin is suspicious, then angry, then filled with remorse. Wash, rinse and repeat, with a few segues into intrigue (Edwin tricks his brothers friend, played by Brian Wallace in one of several roles, into bringing him Johns diary) and a slight history of 19th-century American theater and the Civil War. But Creatore has written Edwin as a borderline sociopath, one with whom it is difficult to identify or empathize. Blessed with a thriving career and a devoted wife, this fictional Edwin is so hell-bent on self-sabotage that, Creatore suggests, he deliberately allows John Wilkes to act on his desire to exact revenge on Lincoln. Whats most unsettling is that John feels like the most stable Booth brother by shows end.
An Error of the Moon
Open run, Theatre Row, 410 W. 42nd St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-239-6200; $50.