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Simon Russell Beale portrays a London cab driver instead of a classical hero

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

Simon Russell Beale is a splendid British actor, no doubt, but when watching him interpret classical roles such as Hamlet and Uncle Vanya in the past, I have always been aware that he is, well, acting. His artistry tends to have a slightly studied quality that suggests his performance is more cerebral than soulful.

So it’s good to observe Beale get down to earth as Jimmy, a London cab driver in “Bluebird,” a 1998 British play by Simon Stephens that opened on Monday at Atlantic Theater Company’s second stage space.

Depicting a scruffy, everyday type of fellow like Jimmy – or at least he initially seems that way — allows Beale to perform in a subtler, more natural fashion than he usually does. Since Atlantic Stage 2 is a 95-seat theater, his work certainly needs to be understated.

An increasingly sorrowful play that concludes in a cemetery, “Bluebird” studies Jimmy as he transports people around London one hot summer night. The taxicab confessions Jimmy hears generally are sad ones and eventually the piecemeal details of middle-aged Jimmy’s own tragic saga finally fuse when he meets again with his long-estranged wife Clare.

The plainspoken 100-minute drama’s resolution involving a gift for Clare is a bit far-fetched and the story’s overall effect is a downer, but the playwright’s moody conversations sit well on the ear. Often the ten or so individuals whom Jimmy encounters say how they want to escape their bleak existence and we learn, after a while, that’s what Jimmy has done over these last five years by driving a cab.

If Jimmy’s story is not so credible, Beale offers a quietly believable performance as a haunted man. His hands steering an invisible wheel, eyes constantly checking the mirrors or darting elsewhere in response to traffic noises, Beale plays the cab driver as a deeply melancholy soul with an empathetic attitude towards others.