In her play Spain, Jen Silverman tells a story about disinformation and the value of art through an historic lens. In 1930s Manhattan, two Communist sympathizers are charged by their Russian handlers with making a film, a piece of propaganda, about the Spanish civil war. Neither having been there—and after brainstorming the most obvious clichés—they enlist a couple of famous writers to help flesh out the script. The film eventually gets made, and the Russians move on to other forms of brainwashing.

 

Of the characters in Spain, at least three are flesh and blood; the filmmakers are the fictional Helen and Joris Ivens, a Dutch filmmaker who did make a propaganda film for the Russians, The Spanish Earth. Karl, their Russian handler, is fictional; but novelists John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway, who are recruited by Helen and Joris, are not only but also contributed in some way to Ivens’ film. Silverman has fun with her bit of alternative history but, since Ivens comes off as naïve, Dos Passos as staid and Hemingway loud, the caricatures too neatly fit the play’s cantankerous tone, not quite serious but not quite frivolous.   

 

That said, Spain is somewhat underwhelming; with such imposing real-life characters and an exciting true story, it should have far more crackling dramatic sweep than it does. Yet, it’s a diverting 90 minutes, largely thanks to Tyne Rafaeli’s appropriately cinematic direction; she is greatly assisted by Jen Schriever’s inventive lighting, Dane Leffrey’s maneuverable sets, Daniel Kluger’s witty sound design and Alejo Vietti’s on-target costumes, all of which contribute to the fast but not exhausting pace. The cast, comprising Andrew Burnap (Ivens), Marin Ireland (Helen), Danny Wolohan (Hemingway), Eric Lochtefeld (Dos Passos), and Zachary James (Karl), does its best to put some flesh on these caricatures, with James providing extra zest with his booming singing voice giving the occasional operatic flourish.

 

Despite Spain’s glittery surface, Silverman is after something more. Late in the play, it’s said that “…films are powerful and so are the people who make them.” That leads to an ending that’s set in a somewhat hazy present with the same characters, who are now tasked with using their wares on the internet since, as Karl (still their handler) notes, “Movies aren’t a thing anymore.” But this scene feels tacked on as a way to crudely link past and present. Its themes of disinformation and purity in art remain relevant, but Spain sometimes becomes what it warns against.