Somehow, between doing eight shows a week of “Of Mice and Men,” teaching, making movies and flirting on Instagram, James Franco’s found time to make his stage directorial debut. Judging from his work on “The Long Shrift,” which opened Sunday night at the Rattlestick, there’s a limit to his talents.
Set in Houston, Texas, in 2009, Robert Boswell’s turgid drama concerns the tense reunion between 28-year-old Richard (Scott Haze) and Beth (Ahna O’Reilly), his former high school classmate who accused him of rape 10 years earlier. Sent to prison for nine years, Richard was freed five years later when Beth recanted her story. Now he’s returned to the rundown home of his Vietnam veteran father Henry (Brian Lally), alone since the death of Richard’s mother Sarah, who was never entirely convinced of her son’s innocence.
Beth wants to make amends for having destroyed Richard’s life, although she still insists the sex wasn’t entirely consensual. Richard wants nothing to do with her, despite her repeated declaration that “I will not be intimidated, I will not be deterred.” He also resists the entreaties of Macy (Allie Gallerani), a perky 18-year-old class president at his former high school, to attend his 10th class reunion.
“He has to go!” she implores his father. “He’s the closest thing to a celebrity that I’ve got.”
Richard eventually relents, joining his former accuser onstage and, opening his shirt to reveal the swastika tattoo that helped him survive in prison, delivers a long, bitter rant about the faithlessness of his friends and teachers.
Former Brat Packer Ally Sheedy delivers an intense turn as Richard’s mom, who dies early on but later reappears, rather awkwardly, as either a ghost or a figment of her husband’s imagination.
The melodramatic proceedings are occasionally leavened with doses of mordant humor, but the play is way too talky. While the provocative premise would seem to hold the promise for dramatic fireworks, it mostly comes across as contrived and artificial. The cast struggles admirably to make the declamatory dialogue sound convincing, but Franco’s sluggish direction only accentuates the play’s deficiencies.
Its title proving all too accurate, “The Long Shrift” — it’s the opposite of short shrift, get it? — makes for a long evening indeed.