Tony Award winner Linda Lavin and director Lynne Meadow, who collaborated on MTC’s The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, reunite for a new production of Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies' celebrated drama. Collected Stories chronicles the relationship between two female writers: Ruth Steiner (Lavin), a celebrated New York author with a dry wit and a distinguished career; and her bright-eyed young protégé, Lisa Morrison. As their relationship evolves and the line between fact and fiction starts to blur, their fascinating story comes to an explosive conclusion.
But the real value of Collected Stories lies in the challenge it presents its two terrific actors, who spend the play parrying and sparring and cuffing each other, first with mother-and-cub affection and later with venomous resentment. Both Lavin and Paulson—under the direction of Lynne Meadow—give their all to the contest, and by the play's end, you can see what it costs them. Lavin plays this grand-dame writer as a down-to-earth diva. She may be sharply critical of her young disciple, but she's not inhumane. And in a confessional and vulnerable moment, when she shares the details of a youthful affair, her demeanor suddenly turns charmingly, disarmingly girlish.
It doesn't matter that the relationship between Ruth Steiner and Lisa Morrison follows a course so calculated, it could have been set by NASA. That's because they're played by the expert Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulson, respectively, who find a world of ambiguities in a fairly standard story.
1997 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
1998 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2010 | Broadway |
Manhattan Theatre Club Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Linda Lavin |
1997 | The Pulitzer Prize | The Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Donald Margulies |
1997 | The Pulitzer Prize | The Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Donald Margulies |
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