Interview production image. Photo by Helen MurrayA washed-up middle aged political reporter has blotted his copy book and been sidelined by his own editor. Resentfully, he agrees to the ignominious assignment of interviewing an actress-influencer with gazillions of social media followers. Pierre (Robert Sean Leonard) is the cynical, impatient hack, more accustomed to Ukrainian war zones and Washington intrigue. She is the shopaholic bimbo and trash movie actress Katya (Paten Hughes) who is eager to be taken seriously but repeatedly allows him to trap her in little white lies and omissions.
It’s hardly an original nor especially groundbreaking premise, and there follows 90 minutes of irritable sparring, point scoring, tantrums, flirting, drinking and an attempt to elevate the dialogue to intrigue. The actors do their best to infer that their meeting at her Brooklyn apartment for an exclusive access interview may have more to do with the imminent impeachment of the Vice President and a need to keep this particular journalist otherwise occupied. Certainly, Derek McLane’s beautifully stylish loft set comes alive when the video designs developed by IDon’tLoveYouAnymore include back wall projections of news flashes and rolling interviews in the DC corridors of power, but somehow, they never amount to anything significant nor materially contribute to the narrative.
After an intergenerational slow dance and the inevitable snog, an unconvincing row erupts in a bath. However, with barely enough water emanating from the tap to splash more than a few droplets on the pair, the moment feels stilted and embarrassing and certainly doesn’t justify the self-conscious throwing of towels as staged here. There are some cracking one-liners and witty attempts at social commentary, but when it eventually arrives, the revelatory denouement is something of a damp squib and leads us to the inevitable conclusion that neither individual is especially worthy of our sympathy or continued interest.
For all its promise, ultimately INTERVIEW proves a disjointed and slight effort. It verbalises some feminist headline grudges and demonstrates the comically stark difference between those familiar with wielding the power of social media and those who were not born to it. That aside, the play offers very little else to commend it, aside from being this reviewer’s first time seeing Robert Sean Leonard on stage since 1992, when he appeared at the Shaftesbury Theatre with Alan Alda in Our Town. Where have the years gone?
INTERVIEW plays at Riverside Studios until 27 September.
