Itamar Moses seems to be the playwright of the hour. This fall he has five shows on the boards. His most successful play so far, Bach at Leipzig, about a group of scheming organists all competing for the newly vacant post of organmeister in Leipzig, just closed the Santa Cruz Shakespeare Festival. His Back Back Back, in which he examines steroid use in professional athletics, opens at the Old Globe September 26th. Yellowjackets, which deals with the issues that face high school students as regards to race, class, and progressive politics, has just opened at Berkeley Rep. His newest, Celebrity Row about terrorism, is set to open in Chicago. Los Angeles is being treated to a fine production of The Four of Us at the Elephant Theatre Lab as a joint project of Firefly Theatre and VS.Theatre Company.
The Four of Us is basically the story of two friends who meet at music camp but go on to be writers. Ryan Johnston plays Ben, the more caustic, private, and serious of the two. He goes on to write a novel that nets him two million dollars on his first go-round. His best friend is David, Steven Klein, who is thoughtful, outgoing, and leads a more balanced social life. They meet over Indian food to celebrate Ben’s success. Trouble is David is a young playwright who hasn’t had any success yet and is torn between being thrilled and happy for his friend’s success, and eaten up with jealousy to the point that he wonders aloud whether all that money might corrupt the author.
The play goes well beyond competition, a theme that seems to be Moses’ obsession. This obsession carries over into discussion of the demands of writing a novel versus those of writing a play. When David finally scores on Broadway he catches Ben hurriedly exiting the play before the final scene. Ben wonders how he could write a play about their relationship while David wonders why Ben doesn’t write about it.
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