You can tell where Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories” is going as soon as its two characters meet — which is about a minute in.
It doesn’t matter that the relationship between Ruth Steiner and Lisa Morrison follows a course so calculated, it could have been set by NASA. That’s because they’re played by the expert Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulson, respectively, who find a world of ambiguities in a fairly standard story.
Margulies’ 1997 play, which had its Broadway premiere last night, follows the women over six years. Lisa starts off as a promising student in a creative-writing class taught by Ruth, a literary author with an enviable reputation and a no-nonsense manner.
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Lisa worships Ruth — “Your voice has been inside my head for so long,” she tells her — and even becomes her personal assistant. As time passes, the older woman remains the younger one’s mentor, but the employer/employee, teacher/student bond blossoms into genuine friendship. Ruth still lords it over Lisa — who greedily absorbs advice, criticism and stories from the good ol’ times — but she also reveals a neediness of her own.
After Lisa’s career takes off, she gets further, unwitting help from Ruth. Turns out Lisa — who can’t find inspiration in her own boring life — was taking notes when Ruth told her about a decades-old affair with poet Delmore Schwartz in Greenwich Village.
Outside of his hijacking of Schwartz (who’s safely dead), Margulies doesn’t add much bite or insight to this familiar tale of artistic vampirism. Fortunately, the stars of Lynne Meadow’s production do it for him.
That Lavin has unparalleled comic timing isn’t new. Here, she deftly drawls some words into grunts of disapproval, and could teach a seminar on eye-rolling. But she also unearths layers of conflicting emotions as Ruth’s relationship with Lisa grows complicated. Lavin also somehow manages to look 10 years older at the play’s end, literally showing us her character’s degrading health and the way she’s physically affected by what she considers a betrayal.
Paulson is a worthy match, her posture straightening as Lisa gains confidence, her glare acquiring a steely glint. Underneath her eager-beaver exterior, Lisa may have been a manipulator all along. But she could also be genuinely confused by Ruth’s mixed messages and her subsequent bitter disappointment.
When a confrontation finally occurs, as we knew it would, it’s a joy to watch these two women face off — especially since nobody wins.
elisabeth.vincentelli
@nypost.com