Review: The Rep’s restaurant comedy ‘Seared’ funny, argumentative
ALBANY - The first nine minutes of the second act of "Seared," an intense if overlong comedy at Capital Repertory Theatre through Oct. 6, are a portrait of a driven artist at work.
On a stage that has been converted by designer Brian Prather into a believably functioning facsimile of a restaurant kitchen, a chef named Harry (Caesa Samayoa), whose struggling, 16-seat Brooklyn eatery is starting to find success, wordlessly slices, chops, seasons, sautés, blends, tastes, reseasons, retastes, considers, exults and begins again. It's an unexceptional act, in that such dish creation happens thousands of times every day in local restaurant kitchens. But to see it on a theater stage makes it unusual, even thrilling, as we intently watch something we either don't see or don't view with such rapt attention, instead chatting with companions and awaiting, perhaps before going to the theater, the arrival of steak, pasta or, in the case of Harry's restaurant, a scallop dish.
Theater Review
"Seared"
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Running time: Two hours and 20 minutes, including one intermission
Continues: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 6. Additional matinee, 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25. An ASL-interpreted performance will be held 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28.
Tickets: $30.50 to $70.50
Info: 518-346-6204 and attherep.org
In the play, by acclaimed theater, TV and book writer Theresa Rebeck, who is the female playwright most produced on Broadway in our era, scallops are both the source of Harry's burgeoning success and his battles with his own ego and with his business partner, Mike (Kyle Cameron). It's been "their" restaurant for two and a half years, but as Harry is reminded when necessary, and sometimes when not, it's Mike's money, and financial peril threatens. After being spotlighted in a pick-of-the-week item by New York magazine, Harry's scallops bring a rush of new customers.
For reasons philosophical, practical and illogical, Harry refuses to make the dish again. This sets off epic battles between the two men, exacerbated by the arrival of Emily (Rin Allen), a restaurant consult Mike brings in whose motives are as opaque as she is hard-nosed, impatient with an intransigent diva chef unwilling to capitalize on an expanding customer base. The only reasonable person in the room is a young waiter named Rodney - the outstanding Jovan Davis, in his third appearance at The Rep in 18 months - who cares about the restaurant and contributes to plating dishes but has enough distance to offer refreshing perspective and much humor. (Davis was in The Rep's "Sweat" this past spring and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" a year earlier.)
I've been writing about restaurants for the Times Union for 21 years and have been in many kitchens during service. Except for an argument about sharing tips that is wrong on legal grounds, none of the details in "Seared" struck an inauthentic note. Rebeck must have spent significant time in professional kitchens, as either employee or playwright researching a new work, or more likely both. The characters, drawn with precise individuality that is also immediately recognizable, speak like people in the restaurant business, and they burn with the passion of those willing to sacrifice nights, weekends, social lives, relationships and mental and physical health to build a successful restaurant.
And so I was mildly disappointed that, overall, The Rep's production, under the direction of The Rep's associate artistic director, Margaret E. Hall, is less of a rousing success than the "Seared" staged at Williamstown Theatre Festival in the Berkshires six summers ago. The arguments begin to feel attenuated, repetitive, shrill; the pacing needs tightening, as the show noticeably runs 20 minutes longer than it did in Williamstown, and Harry's pretty much an arrogant jerk most of the time.
Tortured artists can be exasperating to deal with. They frequently self-sabotage or otherwise are their own worst enemies. That's part of the entertainment, and sometimes pain, of watching stories about them. Aside from when Rodney, the youngest and least experienced character, is showing the others how adults behave, "Seared" is most compelling when Harry cooks. His knife mows through mushrooms. He puts fish in the pan properly, laying it down away from him, in case the oil spatters. "Food is real," he repeatedly tells Mike and Emily. Nourishing people matters, even as the act of feeding them feeds his own soul.
This story was originally published September 18, 2024, 8:37 PM.
