God Cried<\/em>, a book on the Israeli siege and bombing of Beirut during the Lebanon War, by Tony Clifton and Catherine Leroy. In it, Dahl refers to the Jewish people as \u201cbarbarous murderers,\u201d imploring the Jews of the world to turn against Israel.<\/p>\nThe play, as many in the audience noted, could not be more topical. Though Rosenblatt wrote Giant<\/em> well before Israel\u2019s current bombing campaign in Lebanon, those events, and the ongoing war in Gaza, were certainly top of mind for those watching. Where is the line between criticism of Israel and blatant antisemitism? And then that old chestnut: Can we\u2014should we\u2014separate the art from the artist? Dahl\u2019s example proves just how little public discourse has changed over the last 40 years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
We meet Dahl\u2014played by the towering John Lithgow\u2014in Gipsy House, his home in Great Missenden, England, right in the middle of his public-relations crisis. He is flanked and attended to by his much younger soon-to-be wife, Felicity Crosland (Rachael Stirling), and British publisher Tom Maschler (Elliot Levey). With the release of his upcoming novel The Witches<\/em> fast approaching\u2014and the outcry against his antisemitic review swelling\u2014Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Dahl\u2019s American publisher, has sent out a young sales director, Jessie Stone (Aya Cash), to simultaneously make Dahl feel looked after and get him to issue a public apology.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nIndeed, it is the responsibility of Maschler and Stone, both Jewish, to convince Dahl of his moral and financial obligations to eat his words. This, of course, is ironic for more than one reason: \u201cYou understand the power of language more than anyone,\u201d Stone reminds him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nTall, balding, and bespectacled Lithgow\u2019s Dahl is almost more creature than man, his bowed, puppet-like physicality resembling the Quentin Blake drawings that populated the covers and pages of his stories. The room in which the entire play takes place is meant to be under renovation, the stage littered with ladders and plastic tarps and scored by the sounds of hammering and drilling. It\u2019s a fairly suffocating environment\u2014not least because of the uncomfortable confrontations taking place there.<\/p>\n
Dahl is clearly an antagonizer\u2014even a bully\u2014but in Rosenblatt\u2019s script, he is also wildly funny. In what might have been the biggest laugh of the night, Stone is expressing her concern about losing the American Library Association\u2019s support of his work, and Dahl quips, \u201cGod. Satan\u2019s Spinster Army!\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of the performance, the actors were greeted with large bouquets of roses and a standing ovation. From there, cars and trains brought guests downtown to the after-party at Capitale, a historic ballroom venue in the former Bowery Savings Bank. The imposing space and high ceilings felt appropriate for a play titled Giant<\/em>.<\/p>\nThough snozzcumbers<\/em> were off the menu, canap\u00e9s were passed, and the venue boasted multiple noodle bars and corned beef sandwich stations. The Pitt<\/em> co-stars Ball and Briones were among the throng, and both were massive fans of the production. \u201cTalking about such big, heady, complicated international conflicts and trying to solve them interpersonally is our lives, and is also impossible,\u201d Briones told Vogue.<\/em> \u201cI think it was such a well-staged illustration of that struggle that a lot of people are feeling right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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