Keep your eye on Jemma Kennedy, the young British playwright whose snappy comedy, The Grand Irrationality, is now in its world-premiere run at The Lost Studio. Kennedy, a published novelist (“Skywalking”) and recent playwright-in-residence at the National Theatre, takes aim at several targets in her new play -- the ad world, mismatched lovers, astrology, a dysfunctional family -- and hits the bull's-eye with just about every shot.
The main characters are Guy (Gregory Marcel), a copy writer whose job depends on the success of his campaign for a "carbonated lifestyle fruit juice drink" aimed at the successful modern woman, and Nina (Kirsten Kollender), the beautiful project manager for the company behind the fizzy beverage. Urged on by his corporate shark of a boss (James Donovan), Guy seduces Nina as a way to (literally) nail down the account. Tough and hip as she is, she still falls hard for Guy. When Mr Right inexplicably dumps her, Nina manages to survive her pain and go on the attack in revenge.
The other misfits in Grand include Guy's father (Peter Elbling), an underground cartoonist who thinks his adman son is a sell-out; Rose (Mina Badie), Guy's post-partum-depressed sister; and Vivienne (Bess Myer), a French-American social worker whose main pleasure in life is screwing men over.
Kennedy explains the play's title thusly: "In astrology, the Grand Irrationality is when the planets are all out of alignment and nothing adds up." That's how it is for the people in her play: their quest for harmony is always defeated by their flaws and follies.
Director John Pleshette and his gifted cast do their best by The Grand Irrationality; pacing and performances are spot-on for this comedy of (bad) manners. The play runs a tad long and consequently loses some of its power, but the laughs keep coming nonetheless.
