Anna Delvey (aka Anna Sorokin) is a convicted felon, who defrauded people of hundreds of thousands of dollars through various schemes – from setting up a foundation in her name to leaving friends and acquaintances to pick up extortionate bills for hotel stays. She was found guilty of grand larceny in 2019 and sentenced to 4-12 years in prison, along with the requirement to pay restitution to various parties. She was released in 2022, confined to house arrest and with – most punitive in her mind – no access to social media.
Four years
later, she’s been the subject of numerous documentaries, a TV series called Inventing
Anna from Shonda Rhimes, along with numerous magazine profiles. She lives
on Manhattan’s lower East Side and has 1.1 million followers on Instagram.
As Anna says
late in Anna X, a play based on her life by playwright Joseph Charlton, “if
you lie and they believe you, you’re an entrepreneur.”
Of course,
in 2026, if you lie and you’re a felon, guilty of fraud, you can also be the
President.
Charlton’s
play takes the real Anna as an inspiration and pits her against a creative Silicon
Valley guy, who loses his cornfed Southern wife, as he starts playing with the
big boys – writing code and finding investors to make shit happen. The world of
venture capital as it collides with the idea for an exclusive, members-only
dating app is as fake as Anna’s life of larceny.
At Red Stitch,
under the direction of Tait de Lorenzo, the two characters circle each other against
the backdrop of Louisa Fitzgerald’s stark white set that is occasionally
adorned with decorated cubes or amusing pieces of art. The striking minimalism echoes
the galleries these two wander through, along with the empty apartments they
exist in – both before and after getting money.
The play
opens with a text exchange between Anna and Ariel, getting to know each other
in a too-loud club, both trying to get the upper hand over their slippery companions.
It’s a bracing start and in this world of art and openings and schmoozing, we
spend a lot of time in spaces where things can be misinterpreted or
misunderstood. The milieu is rich with possibility. Lisa Mibus’ lighting is
endlessly inventive and Grace Ferguson’s sound design is suitably overwhelming
when it needs to be.
Unfortunately,
when your two characters are almost as mercenary as each other, we are left to
watch their witty barbs shred each other on a race to the bottom. Anna is a
sociopath and Ariel, while victim to Anna’s schemes, is also a master of
self-sabotage. How far will Anna go? Well, if you’re familiar at all with her
well-documented real-life history, you already know. I was only casually familiar
with the subject matter, but already knew she’d had her comeuppance and was still doing okay.
Cast
members Becca Galvin and Tom Stokes get to show off their range, beyond the two
leads, by playing an ever-widening web of supporting players. For a show that’s
about code-switching and performance, it’s fitting that they both play multiple
characters. But it’s the central dramatic conflict where this production doesn’t
quite have the juice it needs. Galvin’s Anna is particularly mannered, and even
though it’s a close imitation of the real person, it’s off-putting, almost uncanny.
Stokes’ Ariel has moments of genuine emotional turmoil, but the character is
also trying to temper his expressions and play things off like they are no big
deal. And I think you can only get away with the wanking motion once per play.
For a
script that suggests a rapid repartee, the pacing in this production often
slows to languid. The choice to drop an interval into a show that advertises
itself as one hour fifty is very odd. Why not run it through in ninety
minutes, as has been done elsewhere? Its West End debut was advertised at a tight
75!
In my
review of Red Stitch’s production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ The Comeuppance,
I talked about stage responding to recent events or, indeed, the present
moment. That play felt cutting edge, talking about lockdowns only a year later.
Anna X is digging into modern notions of
capitalism and the use of online content to make people famous for just being
famous. But by fixing itself so clearly on Anna Delvey herself, it feels way
behind the times. She was famous on Netflix until the next true crime/true life
scandal series came along. And even though people still follow her with
fascination, the play – and this production – never coalesces beyond stating
the very obvious.
- Keith Gow, Theatre First
Anna X is playing at Red Stitch until June 21
Photos: Simon Fazio
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