Pictures From Home– “Are you still here?!”

When photography professor Larry (Danny Burstein) discovers a box with hundreds of Super 8 film reels of his parents and childhood in their California garage, he embarks on an eight year project continuing to document the day to day lives of Irv (Nathan Lane) and Jean (Zoe Wanamaker) Sultan.

 A couple of weekends a month he abandons his own family to become the man who came to dinner, each time regressing to a place of imperturbable nostalgia. Imagine not only being followed around for candid moments but posed (and interviewed) pointedly eschewing verisimilitude. “Are you still here?!” Irv exclaims early on. His folks humor their son but, like us, grow increasingly testy.

Danny Burstein, Zoe Wanamaker, Nathan Lane

In an interview with Terry Gross, the now deceased Sultan described his piece as “…these incredible myths of – almost an epic of an American family moving from back East to the promise of the new life in the West… they’re not only biographical; I see them as cultural artifacts as well.”

There’s no fourth wall. The family address audience as freely as one another, eliminating any chance for developing involvement we initially feel when sweet enthusiastic Larry shepherds us in. Apparently much here is quoted directly from the book which creates narration. This is a stylized piece, or as Larry called his work, conceptual. Characters periodically request projection of certain photos as evidence/example. They appear greatly enlarged.

Integration of photos and film onto Michael Yeargan’s terrific Set is seamless. Sometimes these cover an entire back wall, at others they appear frameless, though contained. Actual furniture seems the continuation of an original image. Check out the couch in the play’s opening. An angled roof adds interest while implying something askew. Pervasive lime color reflects time and place. A backyard is revealed with finesse.

Wanamaker and Lane are made to resemble Irv and Jean without going to extremes. Burstein looks nothing like Larry, but we don’t see the real Larry Sultan until an end photo, so disconnect is avoided. Jennifer Moeller’s costumes suit perfectly.

Zoe Wanamaker

“What’s fascinating to me, is that he can both mock and participate at the same time,” Larry observes of his dad. Sardonic delivery and vaudevillian stage business is, of course, second nature to Lane who makes a slam dunk of frequent forays. (Who knows whether Irv Sultan was actually funny.) Even faltering memory and physical failings are played for laughs – a missed opportunity for more balancing gravitas.

We learn about Irv’s up-by-his-bootstraps salesman background – “Who could afford hopes and dreams?” and a competitive nature that flails after forced retirement. Shades of Willy Loman (Death of a Salesman) Weaned “when men were men,” the 70 year-old quails at images that make him look less than at the top of his game, the ones Larry most values.

Parenthetic father/son confrontation is realistic. (The script is skewed towards their connection.) Irv calls Larry a “loser” for not adhering to a concept of success he understands. “This is my job,” the photographer protests. “If nobody can fire you, it’s not a job!” dad counters. When he’s made to suit up simulating the photo of a Dale Carnegie lecture, the older man swings between habit/immersion and squirming affectation. Rare moments like these give Lane a little something into which he can sink his teeth.

A game helpmate, Jean became a real estate saleswoman when Irv retired. Much to her surprise, she turned out to be a natural. Irv calls it her “hobby.” Without the extra income, things might be different. She also handles their daily needs leaving her husband to garden, grill and play golf. During the piece, Jean is peacemaker, a role to which she’s clearly accustomed. Wanamaker affects an excellent New York-tinted American accent. Inflection, particularly when stressed, is spot on. Several junctures when the couple talk on top of one another arrive entirely credible. Pride in regard to her profession is clip but very present.

Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein

Burstein’s Larry is warm, sincere, and indefatigably enthusiastic until doubts emerge towards the end of the play. He examines his own sense of manhood from roots up.  We see unexpressed thoughts pass across the actor’s face when Larry is challenged. It’s impossible to describe to Irv and Jean what he’s looking for in endless images. When the Sultans decide to move out of their memorial-to-memory house, Larry objects. Bursteinat last reveals the fear his character keeps subjugating. The audience feels empathy.

It’s impossible to know whether Director Bartlett Sher meant to create a two-dimensional piece as rumination on the book or it occurred through too many asides and comic turns. The play is long and stylistically repetitive. There were yawns all around me two-thirds of the way through.

Sharr White is loyal to original material which keeps the play somewhat flat. The successful portrait of a marriage in the 50s, without an arc, never quite becomes a play.

Lighting by the reliable Jennifer Tipton adds subtlety.

59Productions’ Projections are first rate.
Wig/hair and make-up by Tommy Kurzman should take a second look at Burstein’s hairpiece which fits poorly. (What I saw is not accurate to these photos.)

Photos by Julieta Cervantes
Opening: Danny Burstein (Larry Sultan)

Larry Sultan’s 1992 book, Pictures From Home is priced at $219.99 on Amazon

Pictures From Home by Sharr White
Based on the photo memoir “Pictures From Home” by Larry Sultan
Directed by Bartlett Sher

Studio54 
254 West 54 Street
Through April 30, 2023