(photo: Christopher O. Banks)

Stage Guild's Tantalizing 'Enigma'
By Tricia Olszewski / Washington Post

"Enigma Variations" may share its title with a piece of 19th-century orchestral music, but Washington Stage Guild's production of the Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt play will more likely leave you humming a different bit of music.

The first thing you notice about the show's gently cluttered but elegant living-room set is all the books. They belong to Abel Znorko, an author who lives on an island in the Norwegian Sea. Saying that he prefers to be removed from society because he hates love, the gruff, cynical Znorko is the theatrical embodiment of Simon and Garfunkel's "I Am a Rock." Znorko's fortress is one day penetrated by Erik Larsen, a journalist seeking an interview with the reclusive writer after the success of his latest novel, "Unconfessed Love." The book is organized as a correspondence between a romantically involved man and woman, and Larsen wants to know whether it's autobiographical.

It's no surprise when we find out that Znorko (Conrad Feininger) is less the solitary man than he paints himself to be, or that Larsen (Bill Largess) has an ulterior motive. But Schmitt's script, though at times nearly Hollywoodish in its contrivance, does offer a few twists that help make WSG's 90-minute performance a riveting ride.

Schmitt, a contemporary French playwright, took his conceit from an 1896 musical composition by Edward Elgar that consists of 14 movements allegedly based on a single -- but to this day unidentified -- theme. The play's central enigma turns out to be a woman whom both characters know but have rather different perceptions of, which leads to discussions of identity, truth vs. artifice and, most pointedly, the banality of marriage.

Feininger and Largess bring impressive nuance to characters that could easily fall into one-note "Odd Couple" territory.

Znorko is a blowhard egomaniac who defends his bachelorhood. Larsen sarcastically suggests that Znorko's lifestyle amounts to "living with a genius." He adds: While that may be tiring, "it's not as exhausting as living with an idiot!" Feininger keeps Znorko's bombast more entertaining than wearying, though. And the actor succeeds in winning sympathy for his character with occasional cracks-in-the-armor delivery (a singsongy offer of "a drinky poo" to entice his affronted guest to stay) and heartbreaking, far-off stares while Larsen discusses the woman in question.

Largess is "Enigma's" quieter half as the polite and unfailingly honest Larsen, whom Znorko characterizes as "a very orgy of propriety" who gives off "a whiff of bourgeois complacency." Largess is tasked mostly with listening through much of the play, but later uses his calm to devastating effect as the true purpose of his visit is revealed. In this regard, the actors play well together: Whenever one's taking center stage with a monologue, the other remains a firm presence whose reactions are nearly as compelling.

Schmitt's meditation on the convention of relationships -- and the temperaments of wordsmiths -- is often bitingly funny, such as Znorko's response to whether he had ever tied the knot: "Marriage? For a writer? What, someone to dust my desk for me?" Schmitt's dialogue is just as often poetic and aching, from Znorko's passionate description of a time he fell in love to Larsen's life-is-short rationale for being nice to others: "I see the skeleton beneath the skin." The plot turns are a bit head-spinning toward play's end, but it's forgivable: The resulting conundrum, as the music on which "Enigma Variations" is based, satisfyingly leaves both the characters and the audience with plenty to think about.

Enigma Variations, by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt; translated by Jeremy Sams. Directed by Alan Wade. Set, Tracie Duncan; costumes, William Pucilowksy; lighting, Marianne Meadows; sound, Clay Teunis. Approximately 1 hour 30 minutes. Through May 23 at Arena Stage at 14th and T (1901 14th St. NW). Call 240-582-0050 or visit www.stageguild.org.

1901 14th St. NW.
Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.; Fridays & Saturdays at 8 p.m.
matinees Saturdays & Sundays at 2:30 p.m.
(240) 582-0050