Dodi & Diana Review: Mosaic’s Peek at Fame, Love, and Loss
A sexy portrait of a marriage, Mosaic Theater’s Dodi & Diana gets all dressed up but doesn’t really go anywhere.
The audience at Mosaic Theater’s D.C. premiere production of Kareem Fahmy’s Dodi & Diana first encounters the play’s hotel room set obscured behind a diaphanous cloud of curtain. Then the house lights dim, the drapery is tugged aside, an instrumental cover of “A View to a Kill” swells over the speakers, and the show begins.
It’s an unabashedly literal move by director Reginald L. Douglas to open Fahmy’s intimate peek behind the curtain of the showbiz marriage between rising Hollywood actress Samira (Dina Soltan) and her investment banker husband Jason (Jake Loewenthal).
Yet, drapes parting in a rush also constitutes an engagingly theatrical, cinematic, and effective means of thrusting us inside the room with the couple.
And this isn’t just any hotel room. It’s the same luxury suite at the Ritz in Paris where Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, spent their last private moments together before being chased to their deaths by swarming paparazzi.
Sumptuously rendered by set designer Shartoya R. Jn. Baptiste, this room will serve as love nest and battleground for Jason and Samira, who have vowed not to leave their suite — nor allow anyone else inside it — for the entire weekend.
Those are two of the rules prescribed by Jason’s astrologer, upon whose advice they’ve taken this exact room, for reasons that come to light in due time. In the meantime, they dance and bicker, make love, make plans, break plans, share room service, dress up in their finest just for fun, and try their best to stick to the rules.
Throughout, Soltan and Loewenthal fluently convey the intimacy shared by a loving couple alone and comfortable in their space — and comfortable in their skins, as both are often in various states of undress. Jason and Samira are a frisky pair, not unlike, the play supposes, Dodi and Diana.
Traces of the more famous lovers still linger at the Ritz. Dodi and Diana’s voices, performed by Loewenthal and Soltan, echo through the space, sometimes audibly to our modern-day married couple. The imagined conversations between Dodi and Diana don’t strongly evoke the late real-life pair, or, frankly, add much other than drawing parallels between them and the present-day pair.
The sound design by navi, weaving the voiceover in and out of the drama is well-done, though. Recorded audio contributes admirably in many aspects, particularly in depicting a dramatic fantasy of the fatal car chase through Paris.
The two very different couples have a few things in common, and fame is one of them. Samira, gaining clout from her notable supporting role on a hit TV show, is a blossoming star, excited to take on even bigger roles and reap glamorous rewards like Valentino gowns and suites at the Ritz.
Jason, enjoying success in his own right, is rich and getting richer with the help of tips from his tapped-in astrologer. But his life and their lives as a couple are largely defined by his wife’s work and status. Negotiating some balance, so that their future isn’t always dependent on the whims of which parts come her way, seems to be the crux of the drama for Jason.
Loewenthal laces his upbeat, lowkey cocky portrayal with a sense of the guy’s perpetually wounded pride. He appears at times almost desperate for Samira’s approval, while she’s more acutely focused on steering her career.
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Soltan convinces as a dedicated and hungry artist, if not exactly as a celebrity already used to being hounded by paparazzi. The performance captures, with sharp humor, the balance that Samira might like to negotiate, as an Egyptian-American actress already dealing with being typecast in stereotypical Arab roles.
That thread offers a cleverly roundabout connection to Dodi and one of the conflicts he and Diana faced by going public. Ultimately, the overall connection to Dodi and Diana still feels arbitrary — a hook to hang this story on, but not a real key to our purpose peeking in on this couple alone in their room.
Dodi & Diana (★★★☆☆) runs through Oct. 5 at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $42 to $70, with discount options and rush tickets available for each performance. Call 202-399-7993, ext. 2 or visit www.mosaictheater.org.
This season’s must-see list is here. Check out our Fall Arts Preview.
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