Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – DAVID GREENSPAN dazzles in Mona Pirnot’s meta-theatrical I’M ASSUMING YOU KNOW DAVID GREENSPAN

• By drediman
• April 14, 2025
• No Comments

Over the years, theater genius David Greenspan has established himself as an uncompromising theater artist of the first order. His legendary single-handed bouts with unconventional theatrical material — among them his effervescent version of the all-but-forgotten 1925 comedy by Barry Conners The Patsy, as well as his herculean solo rendition of Eugene O’Neill’s rarely performed six hour melodramatic family epic Strange Interlude — have seared themselves into my mind. His more recent outings like On Set with Teda Bara and Four Saints in Three Acts — both presented way off the grid deep in Brooklyn — have been nearly as memorable, suggesting that the nearly 70-year-old Greenspan has no short-term plans of slowing down.

Now over at Atlantic Theater Company — one of New York’s more recognizable mainstream Off-Broadway theater companies — we have I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan, perhaps one of his most visible projects to date. Although you may initially assume that it is, the piece is actually not Greenspan’s creation, but an autobiographical work by playwright Mona Pirnot. In her play, Pirnot recounts a night with fellow playwrights — one currently struggling to survive on below minimum wage income, the other a well-paid writer working in television — as they heatedly debate the sustainability of life as a playwright working strictly in the theater. During the evening, Pirnot also discloses that she is writing a play about downtown theater icon David Greenspan — whom she obsessively fawns over with the utmost superlatives — which she hopes will be performed by him despite not knowing him personally or professionally.

Obviously, Pirnot has ultimately gotten her wish (despite the the postponement of the production by a few months), and Greenspan is once again dazzling playing all the characters in the piece, including the playwright herself. Although perhaps not quite the remarkable technical achievement as some of his previous performances, I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan is a vastly entertaining yet sobering meta-theatrical rabbit hole — an exceedingly clever play about the creation of the play in question (just like [title of show] and even this season’s stage adaptation of Smash) — and it’s nice for a change not to be bombarded by the actor’s rapid fire delivery and have the opportunity to fully savor his astonishing talent.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I’M ASSUMING YOU KNOW DAVID GREENSPAN
Off-Broadway, Play
Atlantic Theater Company
1 hour, 20 minutes (without an intermission)
Through April 30