In director and adaptor Teunkie Van Der Sluijs’ modern take on Theo Van Gogh’s 2003 psychological thriller Interview, a scenic Brooklyn apartment is transformed into a battleground.
Here on the Riverside Studios stage, the truth is little more than another tool in a seductively twisted tussle for power between Paten Hughes’ perpetually underestimated influencer-turned-actress Katya and Robert Sean Leonard’s increasingly outmoded political journalist Pierre, two restless souls frustrated with their place in the world and determined to use this interview to unravel each other. It’s unfortunate, however, that the tense two-hander fails to add a fresh perspective to its tantalising premise, despite its references to social media, modern geopolitics, cancel culture, and the complexities of post-#MeToo gender dynamics.
To start with the positives, Derek McLane’s set design is a visual delight, creating a stylish apartment set that allows its leads to dance both around and with each other. It feels both eccentric and clinically put together, much like its owner. Jackie Shemesh’s lighting design also adds much to the production, with some clever flourishes that serve to accentuate the tension and convey just how much time our two leads are spending grappling with each other.
The dialogue, adapted by Van Der Sluijs from Theodor Holman’s screenplay, largely sums the production up, having moments of genuine sharpness and humour but often suffering from tonal inconsistency and getting slightly lost within itself, leading to bloated scenes and meta-commentary that feels blunt and arbitrary.
Leonard and Hughes give assured performances as their respective characters, committing to the moments of physical intensity while ably handling a script that swings wildly from emotion to emotion. Leonard uses all of his Tony Award-winning experience to add a sympathetic weightiness to a severely flawed character, and Hughes imbues her performance with a calculated charm and mania that shines through even in her rare quiet moments. It’s a shame then that the script can feel meandering at some points and rushed at others, making it difficult to really invest in these characters and take in the performances.
This speaks to the largest issue with this adaptation of Interview: it just doesn’t do enough to stick with you. The script feels overstuffed and scattered, leaving unevenly paced moments that you feel would have benefited from taking a beat.
Furthermore, while the production’s incorporation of social media, digital cameras, and texts projected onto the Riverside Studios stage walls is aesthetically modern, the substance of the show lacks a fresh take on the original to justify these cosmetic changes, and fails to truly delve into the nuances of the post-truth, post-#MeToo world it sets itself in.
Van Der Sluijs’ take on Interview is by no means a bad one; it benefits massively from having two capable leads and a brilliant production team. However, the tragedy of this Riverside Studios adaptation is that these positives are undermined by a cluttered script that fails to bring the source material into the modern age in a way that feels definitive or substantive.
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