‘Lost Lake’ Starring John Hawkes

There’s something sad and lonely about a summer cottage in winter, a forlorn quality that permeates helmer Daniel Sullivan’s sensitive production of David Auburn’s Lost Lake. Like the dilapidated cabin designed by J. Michael Griggs, the odd couple in this two-hander have the bedraggled air of tired, worn-out souls. A considerable amount of compassion has gone into parallel character studies of the owner of the cabin and a potential renter, roles played with uncanny empathy by John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) and Tracie Thoms (Cold Case). But there are only rumors of action — and it all seems to be happening outdoors. The sublime arts of acting and directing are on excellent display in Manhattan Theater Club’s presentation of a play developed at the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference and subsequently seen as part of the Sullivan Project at the University of Illinois. But such a lot of work for such a minor work, even if it does happen to be a new play by a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Proof).