La Ronde de Lunch, produced by Gary Grossman for Katselas Theatre Company. Opens Oct. 17; plays Fri.- Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 7 pm; through Nov. 15. Tickets: $25. Skylight Theatre, 1816 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles; 310.358.9936 or katselastheatre.org
German-born playwright Arthur Schnitzler scripted La Ronde in 1900 as a farcical scrutiny of the sexual mores and class ideology of his day through a series of encounters between pairs of characters, shown before or after a sexual encounter. Peter Lefcourt’s skewering update captures 21st century Los Angeles’ replacement for sex…lunch!
Peter Lefcourt
“I’ve never seen the original Schnitzler play,” says Lefcourt, whose contemporary adaptation, La Ronde de Lunch, is directed by Lefcourt’s wife Terri Hanauer. “I was aware of the Max Ophuls film version (1951) and I saw Roger Vadim’s film (1964). I remember I was very moved by it. Both films followed the same form but had different characters. I don’t believe either of them followed Schnitzler’s exact plot or characters.
“I got interested in adapting it for the stage in the mid ’80s. I was living in Beverly Hills at the time.Writers always search for ‘the germ.’ Sometimes it is very specific. In this particular case, I can’t tell you there was such a germ motivating me. What had always interested me was the notion of lunch being a war game and not a meal. Having been in this business since the early ’70s, I have had my share of lunches. I gradually became aware very few lunches I had were about eating. It was usually about somebody selling something to somebody else.”
Lefcourt certainly understands the process of selling and being sold in Tinseltown. A Co-Executive Producer on ABC’s Desperate Housewives, he has found great success as a screenwriter, novelist and playwright. Other produced stage works include Only the Dead Know Burbank (Hudson Theater), Sweet Talk (Manhattan Class Company in New York) and The Audit (Actors Alley). Among his many television credits, Lefcourt created the Showtime series Beggars & Choosers, and his scripting of Cagney & Lacy earned him an Emmy Award for television writing. His novel The Deal was adapted into a feature film starring William H. Macy and Meg Ryan.
Jay Huguley and Kathryn Harrold
He did study the construct of the original work. “Terri got a copy of Schnitzler’s play just to look at it,” he recalls. “I began to think about the analog to Schnitzler’s work. His commerce was sexual, a sexual roundelay of characters. I thought it would be interesting to transmit that idea into a similar concept but use a deal brokered by two characters. It starts as a movie deal that becomes a real estate deal. Then it moves onto a sexual deal that eventually circles its ways back.”
Lefcourt had no trouble moving the concept to the modern day movie industry. “The characters came to me fairly rapidly,” he recalls. “I remember trying to pick people who would work as archetypes of Angelinos, many of whom are in the film business, but not everyone. There is a real estate agent, a personal fitness counselor, a bimbo. In each scene there is a character who has the power. Each person is in two scenes. In the first scene they don’t have the power and in the second, they do. There is an ongoing symmetry to it. You’re only as powerful as your last lunch.”
Performing as Lefcourt’s self-serving menagerie is an accomplished ensemble that includes Matt Austin, Clent Bowers, Joe Briggs, Roslyn Cohn, Fiona Gubelmann, Kathryn Harrold, Gina Hecht, Jay Huguley, Amanda Kruger, Brie Mattson, Daniel Montgomery, Ashley Platz, Kate Siegel, Michael B. Silver, Haley Strode, Brynn Thayer, Demetrius Keone Thomas and Robert Trebor.
Earlier versions of La Ronde de Lunch were produced at Actors Alley (1992) and El Portal Theatre (2000). “I have done some extensive re-working and updating since then,” says Lefcourt. “Names certainly have their own cache. In 1992, the name of the self-centered movie star in the play was Mel (in reference to Mel Gibson). In 2000 it was Leonardo (guess who?). In both cases, the first names of superstars are used by people who name-drop to elevate their own importance.”
In the updating of his play, Lefcourt realized the name Leonardo doesn’t evoke the same glow as it did nine years ago. “We couldn’t really find a specific person today who had that first name star value, so we created this fictional British superstar named Clive. Some people might think it is Clive Owen. It really isn’t.”
Joe Briggs and Gina Hecht
One role that has gotten a lot of attention from Lefcourt is the Writer. In earlier versions of the play, it was a man. He has changed the character to a woman. Lefcourt explains, “My director Teri thought it would add a bit of spice, something different and be more current. The character is still a burnt out screenwriter.”
Other Lefcourt targets skewered for satire include lawyers, who he feels are now running the film business, and today’s faux health-conscious lifestyle personified by the physical fitness instructor who lives her life within a world of body sculpting, diets and supplements. “Also, I take a punch at waiters and their menus, featuring these elaborate concoctions of California cuisine, the most improbable combinations of food, then name them after people.”
In fact, the biggest difference between this play and the earlier versions is the five waiters, all named Bruce, who inhabit Hollywood’s most pretentious and expensive restaurant, El Pueblo de la Venezia. “It was originally one waiter,” Lefcourt explains. “Then I thought, why not throw a wild card into the mix of the 10 diners. The waiters are a modern Greek chorus. They are catty, gossipy and dissy. They know everything that is going on in Hollywood. This has also opened up my concept to include music and choreography, staged by the wonderful Tracy Silver. With the waiters singing and dancing within and around each scene, the work has almost turned into a musical.”
Aiding and abetting Lefcourt’s vision is Hanauer, teaming with her husband for the first time. On her own, Hanauer has worked successfully on stage, television and in film. Her short film, A Day in the Life, screened at various festivals. She adapted and directed Lefcourt’s short story, Recycling Flo, chosen by AFI to represent it at the Cannes Film Festival – International Short Film Corner. The film also won two Best Short Film Jury Prizes at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and the Farmington Comedy Film Festival.
“Terri and I have achieved a nice level of checks and balances that has made the work better, “Lefcourt affirms. “We have a positive, creative affect on each other. There are few real disagreements. The problem can be we both get so consumed by putting on this play, that’s all we talk about. Occasionally, we do force ourselves to talk about something else. Right now, Terri is dong more work than I am and I couldn’t be happier. I get to sit there and watch it come to life.
“Of all 10 characters, the closest to home for me is the screenwriter. Hopefully, I am not as jaded and burnt out but I think screenwriters in Hollywood are psychologically injured, constantly. They make a lot of money yet find, creatively, their work is always compromised. The character in my play expresses that in a very dramatic way. The great thing about writing for the stage is no one is going to fire you off your own play but you can absolutely be fired off your own movie.”
Feature image of Lefcourt, Hanauer and cast and story images by Ed Krieger
Article by Julio Martinez
