"Consider the Lilies" Stuart Fail's Off B'wy Play that Fails to Shut Off yaddah yaddah

"Consider the Lilies," a world premier play written/directed by Stuart Fail - started with much promise to be an interesting narcisstic character study but failed by the writer's reluctance to truncate his interminable work.  Fail's 2 Act play is way too long proving detrimental to what started out as a humorous & entertaining play with incisive dialogue.  We meet an elderly, needy, alcoholic, bi-sexual, narcisstic painter, Paul (Austin Pendleton) and are put into the picture with his co-dependent friend, David (Eric Davis) who is also his art dealer.  David is much younger, attractive and attentive to Paul's ongoing lamentations.   Pendleton is a veteran actor of stage & screen.  He's starred on B'wy in   "Fiddler" & "The Diary of Anne Frank."  He's received both a Drama Desk & Obie Award.  He gives a convincing performance as a morose has been artist who is so  overbearing & self-consumed as to be repugnant. David is saintly in his support of Paul's to where he loses himself & "the love of his life."  David & Paul are New Yorkers living in Paris where Paul hoped to be inspired to paint (and after being rebuffed from NYC galleries.)  Act I is essentially the 2 actors.  Act II transitions to NYC with the thankful addition of 3 characters for some relief from the tiresome passive/aggressive pas des deux.  One of the characters, Angela, was David's girlfriend.  She informs David she has moved on in his absence & pregnant with another's baby.  David's breakdown following their break-up is wearisome and incredulous.  Pendleton, however, is completely credible in his role as a case study on narcissism.  Having to deal with someone like Paul would put most sane people off.  "Consider the Lilies" refers to Paul's iconic painting supposedly purchased by Peggy Guggenheim.  The bloom falls off this rose sometime in Act II.   Great artist knows when they're finished with their canvas.  Unfortunately, Fail layers on too much resulting in a murky work.  "The painting is finished when the idea disappears.  (G Baselitz)  A play should finish before the audience stops caring.