Billy Crudup stars in the One Man Play HARRY CLARKE at the Vineyard

Harry Clarke (HC) is the acronym for Philip Bruggelstein. (HC) is the assumed name for the persona of a pretentious, fictitious British rake.  This one act, one actor play HARRY CLARKE by playwright David Cale, LILLIAN (Obie Award) is a character study of a feckless charlatan and grifter.  Harry Clarke is played with unctuous distaste by movie star & B'wy veteran Billy Crudup THE COAST OF UTOPIA (Tony Award).   Philip moves as young boy with his meek mother & harsh father to rural IN where he first begins to adopt a British accent.  Harry speaks directly to the audience to create an intimacy & attempt at empathy to makes us complicit with his loathsome behaviors.  Abused & humiliated by his brutish father who refers to him as a fag seems to justify why Philip morphs into the altar ego Harry Clarke.  As HC he's liberated to maintain sociopathic behaviors taking & doing as he wants without any sense of remorse.  Billy Crudup is the sole actor in this play although he personifies several characters.  In addition to his abusive, homophobic father, Harry portrays 3 members of a wealthy, Jewish family; the Schmidts.  Harry first ingratiates himself with the prodigal son Michael after stalking him and duping him into a friendship.  Their friendship changes into an intense sexual relationship aboard the family's yacht.  HC is not the only character to present a false front.  On board, Harry if first introduced to the mother & sister.  They are easily won over by stoking their egos through fraudulent means.  Later, Harry entices both mother & daughter into sexual dalliances while living with Michael as his lover.  The minimal set devoid clutter from the constant flux of characterizations.  The main obstacle is Clay's writing.  The play is a poorly written B film with a talented actor who didn''t bring his A game acting chops.  Crudup needed a prompting from offstage to regain his foothold.  However, the story never took hold of credibility or any sense of sympathy for its characters.  These are not reasons enough to dismiss the play.  Nor is it fair to disregard the play for its homophobic & anti-semitic sentiments.  HARRY CLARKE is simply a shallow facade.  It felt more like an exercise for acting class than an earnest play that bore depth.