A Cabin in the Woods, but Hardly a Getaway
Charles IsherwoodNovember 11, 2014: A man and a woman, both facing crises, keep slightly uncomfortable company in David Auburn’s small-scale and sleepy new play, Lost Lake, which opened on Tuesday night at City Center in a Manhattan Theater Club production. Generally, when a drama features just two characters of opposite sexes who meet in a cabin in the wilderness, there are only a couple of alternatives: Something very sweet will happen, meaning a love affair, or something very bad will happen, meaning a burst of violence. To his credit, Mr. Auburn, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof, avoids both of those predictable outcomes, although embers of affection do eventually glow, and there is a mention of a gun. Unfortunately, Mr. Auburn doesn’t generate much heat of any other kind in this muted two-hander, which is directed with grace by Daniel Sullivan (who also directed Proof), and benefits from assured performances from the film actor John Hawkes and Tracie Thoms (Stick Fly). Mr. Hawkes plays Hogan, who in the opening scene is showing off the amenities of the cabin by a lake he’s seeking to rent for a summer week to Ms. Thoms’s Veronica. The problem is, aside from the lake there aren’t any amenities. More like liabilities, which Hogan promises will be fixed by the time Veronica and her two children arrive: the wonky shutter hanging off the window; the swimming dock that’s too dangerous to use; the lack of sufficient beds.
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