Playwright Max Posner is a lucky man to have a Playwrights Horizons debut with a production featuring Peter Friedman (Circle Mirror Transformation, The Heidi Chronicles) and Deanna Dunagan (August: Osage County), directed by David Cromer (The Band’s Visit, Our Town). Friedman plays The Son, a middle-aged man of calm demeanor who confesses in the long opening monologue that he expects to go to Hell for not loving his mother Ida. He has good reason not to because she abandoned her family when he was 14. She went on to a second marriage, lived profligately and fancied herself the belle of Albany. When her second husband dies, the party is over and she must adjust to a diminished lifestyle. The Son is tasked by his siblings with the job of managing her finances. She willfully resists his attempts to trim her sails. Whenever the two of them lock horns, we see how hard it is for him to say “no” to her. The play darkens as we realize that she is sinking into dementia. Marinda Anderson (Bella: An American Tall Tale) and Pun Bandhu (Wit, Plenty) play an array of people she interacts with, including a fundraiser for the Albany Philharmonic, a Talbot’s salesperson, a stranger she calls to find out why she keeps remembering a particular phone number, and a bedding store salesperson. Anderson also plays a pregnant woman sitting next to The Son on a plane. There are some very funny bits along the way, some more relevant than others. My favorites were a conference call during which the siblings try to choose an appropriate dog for Ida and a scene, overlong but still hilarious, in which The Son attempts to answer the security questions to log onto his computer. The airplane scene fell flat and the need for a second scene with Ida and a salesperson was questionable. The play takes a turn for the worse near the end that erased some, but not all, of my positive feelings. It is uneven and fragmented and could benefit from further work. Nevertheless, Posner’s writing has a quirky energy that shows promise for the future. The set by Laura Jellinek (Mary Jane, A Life) is problematic. The way it is divided, there are scenes where audience members on a given side of the theater will not see the actor speaking. There is an elaborate unfolding of the set for one short scene that is one of the play’s least interesting. Lucy Mackinnon’s projections before the play opens are wasted because they are shown on a back wall with patterned wallpaper that is partially blocked from the view of much of the audience. David Hyman’s costumes for Ida are wonderful. Director Cromer is only partially successful in pulling it all together. While it doesn’t seem quite ready for prime time, it is an imaginative take on an all too relevant problem and affords the opportunity to see two top-notch actors at work. Running time: one hour 35 minutes; no intermission.
This play deals with an important, timely situation. Did I miss an argument over dividing up responsibility among the brothers (Alan and Jeremy—at least they have names—and The Son)? Why should The Son be the Treasurer? He gives in without much resistance. Is he buying his way out of a more intimate responsibility for taking care of her? Can he even afford it? He’s a geologist; he’s obviously not rolling in dough. He doesn’t love Mom—or if he does, he can’t feel it—and he resents her for her shabby history as a wife and mother. He has good reasons to oppose her move to an expensive senior living facility, but he caves in quickly on this matter too. Would he really trust his mother to use his credit card—at his expense—without oversight from the very beginning? How about The Son’s beloved and compassionate wife Nina? Does he never talk to her about the situation? (It’s her money too). Deanna Dunagan is wonderful as the declining mother; Peter Friedman is excellent too. Too much of the play resides in the monologues; there are a couple of scenes, such as when Mom goes shopping and when Mom has lunch with The Son, that are truly affecting. 95% of the monologues I hear in contemporary plays (no matter how well written) suggest that the playwrights won’t—or can’t—find a way to dramatize what they want to say.
ReplyDeleteThanks for raising some intersting questions.
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