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Review: ‘Film’ at Theatre of NOTE

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A collaboration between Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton sounds about as likely as a play called ‘Film.’ But the pairing actually occurred in 1964 with Beckett’s only venture into cinema — a 20-minute silent movie starring, at Beckett’s urging, the semi-retired Keaton and helmed by theater director Alan Schneider.

Taking its title from this obscure project, Patrick McGowan’s problematic new speculative historical drama at Hollywood’s Theatre of NOTE explores the filming of ‘Film’ through a hallucinatory deconstruction in which fiction proves a lot stranger than truth.

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Schneider, who staged the first American production of ‘Waiting for Godot’ and remained a lifelong Beckett devotee, serves as the tragicomic anchor of the piece, which mixes actual events with impressionistic associations drawn from the careers of the three protagonists. A recurring surreal vaudeville comedy routine pits the nebbishy Schneider (Bill Robens) against his dapper theatrical rival Mike Nichols (Trevor H. Olsen). Schneider directed the premiere of Edward Albee’s ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,’ while Nichols got to direct the movie version. Their sparring pits artistic integrity against commercial success as Schneider confronts the reality that he’s ‘the guy that stages plays no one comes to see.’

As the laconic Beckett, Phil Ward cuts a decidedly unformidable figure: The author’s only visit to America for the New York filming is dominated by his tongue-tied infatuation with the unselfconscious sexuality of the production’s prop girl (Deana Barone). Carl J. Johnson plays the aging Keaton as a resolutely anti-intellectual populist who is completely clueless about the meaning of the film they’re making but brings a wealth of cinematic know-how to the effort.

Trevor Biship’s staging features some inventive visual fusion of past and present — particularly in the use of classic scenes from Keaton’s movies merged with the incarnation of his younger self (Mandi Moss) at the height of his expressive powers. Nevertheless, tediously mannered interpretive movement sequences lapse into unintended avant-theater parody. Packing in a great deal of historical detail without much real consequence, this docudrama with arty window dressing never passes the ‘So what?’ test.

— Philip Brandes

‘Film,’ Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Ave., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 21. $22. (323) 856-8611. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

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