Asymmetric. 59E59 (see Off-Off Broadway). By Mac Rogers. Directed by Jordana Williams. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 40mins. No intermission.
Asymmetric: In brief
A boozy former CIA spymaster is pulled back into the fold for a mission that pits him against his ex-wife in a new thriller by Mac Rogers, directed by Jordana Williams.
Asymmetric: Theater review by Helen Shaw
Mac Rogers—genre playwright extraordinaire—can rant like Sorkin, plot like Mamet, banter like Whedon and sting like a bee. If there's a problem with his bullet-fast, HBO-ready interrogation drama Asymmetric, it's that it's almost too dense, keyed almost too tight. Rogers takes the old rule that writers should "cut the boring bits" to an insane extreme: I think he cuts conjunctions.
The speed does make the implausibilities whiz by, so we accept that the world's best spy, Sunny Black (Kate Middleton), has to be broken by her ex-husband and ex–section chief, Josh (Sean Williams), when she's accused of treason. Did she steal the drone prototype? Does she still love him? Best to ask while twitchy new boss Zach (Seth Shelden) and torture-happy Ford (Rob Maitner) “from upstairs” still have their guns holstered. Rogers and director Jordana Williams make this four-way conversation zoom like a Bourne flick, but one soaked in despair over our real foreign policy. Middleton is steely, Williams does an uneven “old Redford” impression, but while other two do not provide a credible threat, there are always our real fears of the CIA (love you, guys!) to keep matters piquant.—Theater review by Helen Shaw