Playwright: Itamar Moses. At: Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont . Phone: 773-975-8150; $15-$30. Runs through: Dec. 4
Oh, what joy to be young and talented! And oh, how awkward it is to be friends with that young someone who has made millions off of his writing talent, especially when you have your own aspirations of becoming a respected writer!
That's the comic crux behind Itamar Moses' very funny play The Four of Us, now making its Chicago debut via a very witty production by Theater Wit. Flashing backwards and forwards in time, Moses shows how gargantuan critical and financial success drives a wedge between two close friends who gradually devolve into becoming artistic "frenemies."
Moses also layers on lots of wry commentary in The Four of Us. He shows how hotshot young writers become marketable commodities courted by Hollywood types and also slams critics who automatically dismiss an author based upon his age ( Moses is particularly merciless in this respect since he, too, is a young playwright who has already achieved great success in his twenties with plays like Bach at Leipzig and Celebrity Row ) .
Moses' writing is sharply satirical while offering moments of heartfelt emotion. It is wonderful stuff for actors to work with, as evidenced by Theater Wit's fun production.
Director Jeremy Wechsler has been blessed by a great pair of actors to flesh out Moses' two characters: Usaman Ally as the ambitious playwright David and Collin Geraghty as the young and hot author Benjamin.
Both Ally and Geraghty show a natural rapport with each other, whether it's as wide-eyed youths at camp ready to scale the artistic heights in their future, or as aggravated adults who feel cut off and even betrayed by someone once thought of as a close friend. Ally and Geraghty's many jumps in ages is abetted by Roger Wykes' shifting and revealing scenery ( framed in lush red Indian textile panels ) and Christine Pascual's costumes that places the characters appropriately in different stages of success in their lives.
So how does Moses' two-hander about two friends justify its Four of Us title? Well, let's just say that there's a twist toward the end that makes you re-evaluate everything that has come before and after it that makes clear that your assumptions of watching a two-character play isn't entirely what they cracked up to be.
And with that, The Four of Us kicks up its cleverness an extra notch. For some, The Four of Us might be all too snarky and satiric for its own good, but for me it was a richly rewarding examination of how a drastic change of fortune can affect a strong artistic friendship.