Imagine that everyone you\u2019d ever loved and possibly hurt and wronged came to your door to collect, not only in recompense for your wounding of them but for what they gave you in the way of life skills and knowledge. That\u2019s the meaning of the word in adapter and director Doug Wright\u2019s world premiere play, “Creditors,” seen at La Jolla Playhouse through Oct. 25. The original work was written by August Strindberg in 1888 and was translated by Anders Cato. Be assured that the unfolding work is taut, talky, fascinating, surprisingly funny and rife with delicious language. The three actors are gorgeous to look at and ever so skilled. The chickens come home to roost at a luxurious seaside spa\/hotel, where Adolf (Omar Metwally) and his beautiful wife Tekla (Kathryn Meisle) are staying. The active and gregarious Tekla, a successful novelist, takes the ferry to town daily, while Adolf, obviously ill, paints and sculpts in a high-ceilinged sitting room that\u2019s apparently shared by residents of two rooms. At rise, he\u2019s engaged with the inhabitant of the other room, Gustav (T. Ryder Smith), who \u2014 in the short time the two men have been acquainted \u2014 has become confidant and artistic mentor, persuading Adolf to switch from painting to sculpting. Part of the fascination is figuring out exactly what is going on and what motivates Gustav. The conversation is very nearly that of 19th century shrink (Freud had yet to come to prominence) and patient, as Gustav draws out Adolf\u2019s insecurities and fears in a discussion of art, sex and women\u2019s place in society and marriage. The suggestion is that Tekla cannot be trusted and must be unfaithful. Adolf is easily persuaded and manipulated. Judging by the number of wheelchairs and reclining lounge chairs, the hotel is quite obviously a place where the wealthy go during the warm weather to recuperate from the vicissitudes of city life. A breeze wafts through the sheer curtains that admit light and a daylong view of the shore.\u00a0 Eventually Tekla arrives, flushed and exhilarated by her visit to town. She is as yet unacquainted with the man in the neighboring room, but soon he engages her in conversation, purposely arranging for Adolf to observe and hear. The entire piece, which takes place in the course of one afternoon, embodies the attitudes of an era in which people were expected to act in ways proscribed by their society. Obviously, these three have broken all the rules. Wright is the author of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning “I Am My Own Wife.” T. Ryder Smith is familiar to local audiences through his award-winning work at the Old Globe, where he was seen most recently in as George Wallace\u2019s brother in “Cornelia.” Veteran Broadway and regional actors Meisle and Metwally make impressive Playhouse debuts. All are well used here. The physical production, with sets by Robert Brill, costumes by Susan Hilferty, lighting by Japhy Weideman and sound by Jill BC DuBoff, is ravishingly beautiful. The real star of the evening, however, is the rediscovered, reexamined classic play. For that, thanks to the Playhouse and Wright. “Creditors” continues at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 25. For tickets ($30-$65), visit www.lajollaplayhouse.org or call (858) 550-1010.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine that everyone you\u2019d ever loved and possibly hurt and wronged came to your door to collect, not only in recompense for your wounding of them but for what they gave you in the way of life skills and knowledge. That\u2019s the meaning of the word in adapter and director Doug Wright\u2019s world premiere play, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"\u2018Creditors\u2019 comes to collect at Playhouse","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11560,11593,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-no-images","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}