[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Plays With People and Danna Hyams Production’s The Typist by multiple award-winning playwright Shem Bitterman (The Civil Twilight), directed by Jeremy Wechsler, and running through March 9.
The Typist is a new play by the brilliant Shem Bitterman. Set in the early 60s in a seedy one-room walk-up in New York, the story revolves around a writer determined to win the Booker Prize with his newest book and a typist he hires to copy his manuscript for delivery to his publisher. He has a draft, but he knows it needs work, and his hope is that as he dictates his book to her, it will come together. The typist is a writer herself, an ex-student of the writer’s mentor, and so he also hopes that she will bring something to help him hone it.
Of course, this was decades before even a word processor was a glimmer in anyone’s eye. So, a clean copy was something that could take weeks to produce. But as they work together, something big happens. He, the pained alcoholic genius, she, the hidden talent, pushing against the patriarchy and the sexism, hard to be taken seriously while also struggling with the usual self doubts of every artist. They are perfect for each other…
I’m not trying to oversimplify this really wonderful play, but it is, at its core, a love story.
Filled with brilliant dialogue, perfect pacing, angst, jealousy and a little light masochism, The Typist purrs long with a depth that only a real writer, one who has suffered their own parries and blocks, could give it.
The performances are absolutely superb. What incredible casting this is. Evangeline Edwards as the typist is breathtaking and subtle and very, very funny. She never gives her power away. Noah James, as the write,r is also wonderful. He has a gorgeous warmth to his biting retorts. We believe him as he does all he can to resist his own feelings, as he drinks and never eats and as he gentle falls, all the while wishing he wouldn’t.
I cannot praise The Typist highly enough. It is a riveting and genuinely worthwhile play. So focused on this room and these two humans, and yet everything that happens and every word spoken between them feels sincere and authentic and absolutely possible.
It could be now. It could be any one of us. It could be the only thing that ever really matters.
The third star of this brilliant piece is a lonely saxophone player, Alexander Andresen, placed above the stage and to one side, as if he were sitting on the fire escape of the apartment. Playing the blues between scenes to keep us filled with heartbreak and longing, the music was beautifully composed for this play by Roger Bellon.
The Typist is an astonishing surprise of a play with characters so poignant and visceral that I find it almost impossible to compare them to anything I have seen before. This is a very special play with electric performances and heartfelt, purposeful direction.
The Typist is a play I will not forget. It’s one of those magical finds that happen every now and then in theatre. It’s what you hope for every time you take your seat, and the lights go down…it’s a rare, rare treat to be sure. Bravo.
Where:
The Hudson Theatre
6539 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood
When:
January 27-March 9
Friday & Saturday at 8pm; Sundays at 3pm; Mondays at 7:30pm
Tickets:
https://playswithpeople.ludus.com
The Cast:
Evangeline Edwards and Noah James.
The Team:
Shem Bitterman, Writer. Jeremy Wechsler, Director. Roger Bellon, Composer. Alexander Andresen, Saxaphone.