And, yes, you certainly feel the family’s anxiety on a visceral level that you might not otherwise. I figured such a terrific actor would only sign on to a phenomonel role. ", Review by Mark Kennedy [If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet] uses the front-page issues of climate change, obesity, and school bullying as paths to a deeper inquiry into Homo sapiens' self-destructiveness.” —John Lahr, The New Yorker. And the production daringly flirts with a nascent — and somehow natural — eroticism between the affection-starved girl and her alarmed uncle. His crablike sideways walk, his coherent mumbling (in a convincingly sustained British accent) and his shy yet confrontational gaze all speak persuasively of Terry’s uneasiness in navigating the new terrain of delayed-onset adulthood.

As the production continues, pieces of scenery — dragged into action by the performers from a heaped pile of furniture — are pushed into that moat, both casually and angrily. There is definite evidence here of Mr. Payne’s distinctive gifts, which embrace an ear for eloquently elliptical dialogue, a sharp-edged compassion and a searching double vision that balances the micro- and macrocosmic. With “If There Is,” Mr. Payne is ambitiously addressing both the state of the world (or at least its ecology) and the state of a family, while showing how each intersects with and illuminates the other. At the play’s center is the donnish, myopic George (Brian F. O’Byrne), who is so obsessed with global warming that he fails to see that his own clan is on the verge of terminal meltdown. This overwhelming wetness makes for some pretty commanding imagery, as it evokes both a family and a planet under siege. 1 review of If There Is, I Haven't Found It Yet "Was drawn in to see this play by the fact that they "captured" Jake Gyllenhaal to star in it. ISBN: 9781466840737. He is currently under commission with the Royal Court Theatre, the Donmare Warehouse, and the Manhattan Theatre Club. On Sale: 03/19/2013. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Anna's father, George, is no help—he's too obsessed with saving the world. As a portrait of familial ambivalence, “If There Is” doesn’t approach the touching verisimilitude of “You Can Count On Me.” But it’s a perfectly palatable hors d’oeuvre in that it anticipates greater things to come from Mr. Payne, who has obviously since found the “it” that makes a first-rate playwright. The New York Times. Before the play begins, a curtain of falling rain screens the stage, which is further separated from the audience by an overflowing moat.

Nick Payne is the author of the plays Wanderlust, a new version of Sophocles' Electra, One Day When We Were Young, Constellations, and Lay Down Your Cross. It takes a fresh pair of eyes — those of George’s long absent, much younger wastrel brother, Terry (Mr. Gyllenhaal) — to diagnose what’s wrong with this household. Such is also the nature, for better or worse, of the play in which he appears. . Anna’s parents are no help—her mother, who teaches at her school, only makes matters worse, while her writer father is so distracted with his new book about reducing carbon footprints that he has no time for anything else. (I’m not sure anyone could find freshness in a standard-issue scene in which a father finally decides to spend some time with his daughter and then walks out on her to take a phone call from a colleague.).

And the waters continue to rise, so that by evening’s end the actors are ankle-deep. . When Anna’s outspoken, out-of-control Uncle Terry comes for an unexpected visit, he becomes an unlikely friend and confidante. That they do is commendable.

What is the Story of If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet? . Her mother, Fiona, decides to transfer her to the school where she teaches, but that only makes things worse. . Our Privacy Notice has been updated to explain how we use cookies, which you accept by continuing to use this website. That would be Nick Payne’s “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet,” which opened on Thursday night at the Laura Pels Theater in a Roundabout Theater Company production.

"Without leaking too many details, wonderfully unexpected things happen with water and props in director Michael Longhurst’s exciting, inventive staging. These scenes also provide appealing evidence of Mr. Payne’s graceful way with awkward language, in which complete thoughts and feelings emerge from fragments of talk. 111 West 46th Street The ultimate word in such lovable bad brotherhood (and misguided unclehood) might have come from Mark Ruffalo in the 2000 film “You Can Count On Me,” which had a peerless screenplay by Kenneth Lonergan. It becomes a serious challenge for the members of the ensemble to create any sense of organic character development. If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet Off Broadway, Play Closing Date: Dec. 23, 2012 Laura Pels Theater at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 W. 46th St. 212-719-1300 Their unexpected friendship sends her parents' rocky marriage into a tailspin as the whole family wonders what—or who—really needs saving. A heartbroken, filthy-mouthed slacker, Terry reaches out to Anna in a way that no one ever has. He is the winner of the 2009 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and the 2012 Harold Pinter Playwright's Award. ". The script, which isn’t all that subtle to begin with, isn’t allowed to do its own talking, and we aren’t allowed to infer parallels by ourselves. But he and the fine, tartly rueful Ms. Gomez made me believe in the attachments and irritants that shape their characters’ marriage.

Among those he neglects are his wife, Fiona (Michelle Gomez), a schoolteacher, and most especially his daughter, Anna (Annie Funke), an increasingly withdrawn, and commensurately overweight, 15-year-old. Of course 10 minutes into the play, pretty much anyone in the audience might have called out the obvious and essential advice, which is “physician, heal thyself.”. His superb “Constellations,” a reconfiguration of the classic boy-meets-girl story according to the principles of advanced physics, reopens in the West End in November. Trade Paperback; $7.99. And when they’re on stage together, Mr. O’Byrne and Mr. Gyllenhaal manage to summon a full fraternal history of guilt and silence.
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READ AN EXCERPT → g BUY THE BOOK e-Book. American audiences for “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet,” which was first staged in London in 2009, may have to squint a bit to understand what the fuss has been about.

Just as Anna gets suspended for head-butting one of her tormenters, her uncle Terry arrives for an unannounced visit. But the set pre-empts the play in a way, anticipating and underscoring the obvious. celebrated for casting a fresh, fragmented light on the complexities of contemporary life.” —Ben Brantley, The New York Times, “Enter Nick Payne, a stripling British playwright at the beginning of a great career . At 28, he has already racked up enough awards to crowd a long mantelpiece.

Onstage, Mr. Gyllenhaal — who has starred in genre-spanning films ranging from “Brokeback Mountain” to “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” — is winningly at ease as he plays an uncomfortable character. Sign up to receive information about new books, author events, and special offers. Nick Payne. If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet stage dive 9/21/2012 Theater Reviews: The Stage Dive Weekend Roundup Detroit, Sounding Beckett, and If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet. To withdraw your consent, see Your Choices. New York, NY 10036. Laura Pels Theater at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, Brian F. O’Byrne, Michelle Gomez and, in bathtub, Annie Funke play the family in “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet.”, Annie Funke and Jake Gyllenhaal in "If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet.
Amiable, scruffy, erratic, well-intentioned, full of promise and self-sabotaging — such is the nature of Terry, the stoner character with which the movie star Jake Gyllenhaal has chosen to make his very creditable New York stage debut. Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet on Broadway. Set in London, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet follows Anna, a 15-year-old girl who is constantly getting into trouble at school. (Those who like to play six degrees of showbiz separation might note that Mr. Gyllenhaal made his stage debut in London in 2002 in Mr. Lonergan’s “This Is Our Youth,” portraying the Terry-like role created by Mr. Ruffalo in that 1996 play.). If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet A Play.

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Associated Press, "Amiable, scruffy, erratic, well-intentioned, full of promise and self-sabotaging—such is the nature of Terry, the stoner character with which the movie star Jake Gyllenhaal has chosen to make his very creditable New York stage debut.

And I’m not sure that the pull-out-all-the-stops conceptual production that this play has been given by its director, Michael Longhurst (who also staged “Constellations”), and its designer, the feverishly inventive Beowulf Boritt (“Chaplin: The Musical”), finally does its author or its accomplished actors any favors. ", Review by Ben Brantley Farrar, Straus and Giroux.