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June 2, 2015

As both actor and playwright, Jesse Eisenberg loves rolling in the sties of self-contempt, places where privileged human pigs sniffle and suffer and smear themselves with muck. Even if these are areas you usually choose to avoid, it must be said that Mr. Eisenberg gives good wallow. This is confirmed by his latest offering, “The Spoils,” which opened Tuesday night at the Pershing Square Signature Center in an engrossingly acted, impeccably staged production from the New Group. Directed by Scott Elliott, “The Spoils” stars Mr. Eisenberg, who has once again written for himself the part of a colossal, charismatic jerk. Mr. Eisenberg is still best known for portraying a self-centered, self-advancing, socially awkward Mark Zuckerberg in the David Fincher film “The Social Network.” The custom-tailored characters Mr. Eisenberg has created to portray onstage have the added attraction (or handicap) of being born losers. That could certainly be said of the whiny, flailing young writers he brought to life in his “Asuncion” (2011) and “The Revisionist” (2013). But those guys were, well, Zuckerbergs compared to Ben, the passive-aggressive, perpetually stoned, would-be moviemaker in “The Spoils.”

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