‘BecauseHeCan’

THEATER REVIEW: This production is a pot-boiler in the best English penny-dreadful sense of the word and is great fun, with some chuckles and a few chills.

By: Stuart Duncan
   PRINCETON — It’s difficult to believe, but a little more than a year ago, people were terrified the new millennium would bring computer disaster. Millions were spent to ensure bank machines would continue to function, planes would remain in the skies and corporations would not be wiped out when records were destroyed.
   In the midst of all this, absurdist playwright Arthur Kopit wrote an entertaining little thriller about a computer "hacker" who invades machines and, therefore, the private lives of a successful New York couple. Appropriately enough, he titled the play Y2K, and it premiered at Louisville’s Humana Festival under the aegis of Actors’ Theatre of Louisville. It made a nice change from Kopit’s string of successful musical librettos, which included Nine,Phantom and High Society.
   The millennium having passed, and with it the mania over Y2K, the play has been retitled, somewhat revised and given a stunningly fresh set design and a strong cast by director Emily Mann. It has just opened at McCarter Theatre in Princeton. Running an hour and 20 minutes without intermission, apparently the contemporary trend, BecauseHeCan is a potboiler in the best English penny-dreadful sense of the word. It’s great fun, even mildly funny and plenty bizarre, with some nice chuckles and a few chills, but nevertheless, a potboiler.
   Joseph Elliot and his pretty wife, Joanne, are clearly successful. He is an important cog in the publishing business for Random House. She is still slightly threatened by her ex, who seems obsessed with her. Apparently, she is coping well, and all seems serene until Joseph is questioned by a pair of FBI agents as part of an undisclosed investigation.
   On the periphery, glowing with confidence, then gloating with success, is a young computer whiz whose sole ambition seems to be to find "backdoors" into the loopholes of personal computers, build up false scenarios and subsequently destroy the owners. It seems he has no motive, he does it merely "because he can."
   Since this is Kopit, one can expect twists and turns amid the pauses and hesitations. He has much in common with British playwright Harold Pinter. In fact, a trip to McCarter and George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, which is playing Pinter’s Old Times, will tell you much about the current state of drama. It takes a fine company to explore the subtleties and menace of the dialogue, and Ms. Mann has it.
   David Birney has a delicious time as Joseph — gentle, caring and calm until his world shatters around him. Barbara Sukowa has a less well-written role, one that allows a bit of whining amid distrust. She adopts a slightly enigmatic tone. Lionel Mark Smith and Jordan Lage are a pair of stereotypical government agents, close-mouthed to a fault.
   But the evening belongs to 22-year-old newcomer Gene Farber, who comes by way of East Russia, London’s RADA and Boston University. He is glamorous and mesmerizing as the "hacker." He oozes menace, not so much with his words, but in the jaunty mobility of his body and the tiny smirk on his face. He is a future star.
   Minor Kopit, but great fun.
BecauseHeCan plays at McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, through April 15. Performances: Wed.-Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 4, 8:30 p.m.; Sun. 2 p.m.; Sun., April 8, 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $22-$42. For information, call (609) 258-2787. On the Web: www.mccarter.org.
For directions to McCarter Theatre, click here.