An Albee play can go either way. Here's how this weekend's Theatre~Intime production of "The American Dream" and "The Zoo Story" straddles the fine line between realistic subtlety and over-the-top absurdist theater:
Edward Albee is a particularly excellent playwright, a satirist who championed an inimitable style to lampoon the idiocy and hubris of American-style success. You can sample two of his best oneacts — "The American Dream" and "The Zoo Story" — at Intime this weekend.
Albee's plays are often funny and perceptive, but they employ a subtlety of style that is very difficult for actors to successfully represent.
Communicating that style through the acting was the biggest challenge that presented itself to director Katie Grzenczyk '02 in her production of the first play, "The American Dream."
Ted Hall '05 was admirable as the queasy and ineffectual Daddy. Sweat pillowing off of his brow and a nervous smile pasted on his face, he seemed to be doing all that he could to appease the domineering women surrounding him.
And who wouldn't be queasy with the overbearing Mommy for a wife? Cara Marsh Sheffler '04 played Mommy as if she'd taken one too many diet pills and had embarked on a never-ending amphetamine-fueled rampage.
It was a specific character choice, but not one that I would have chosen. Sheffler's Mommy flitted about the stage, compulsively cleaning and rearranging knickknacks and drew focus from the rest of the cast with her exaggerated caricature.
In fact, all of the actors make strong choices in their performances, but this results in a one-act in which everyone seems to be in his or her own time zone. There was no uniform whole or consistency to the production because all the actors seemed to be taking their characters from different genres.
Amid all the switching from the extremes of an "I Love Lucy"-style screwball comedy to realistic subtle humor — depending on which actor controlled the stage — I felt that the actors were all operating in their own worlds and, thus, failed to capture Albee's unique tone.
Only Hall and Juliet Hernandez '02 (as Mrs. Barker) seemed to understand and effectively accommodate the demands of absurdist satire.
In my opinion, the actors just didn't seem to utilize the nuances in Albee's play. "The American Dream" is an excellent and hilarious satire on the interactions and hopes of a typical, moderately successful American family. The tone is absurdist to be sure, and the characters often talk openly and directly about their motivations, instead of implying them, as is done in real life.
Still, for the play to be fully forceful, it has to reflect certain elements of reality. This cast seemed to take the absurdist, nonsensical moments and hyperbolize them, playing the scenes to overly-comic proportions.
All that said, I would absolutely implore you not to miss Grzenczyk's production of "The Zoo Story."
During the intermission, the running crew dismantled the elaborate and cluttered "American Dream" set. They followed an intricately-designed procedure of deconstruction that I fear many in the audience missed as they got up from their seats and roamed around.
I began to feel hopeful that we would get an Albee play in its truest form.
And that's just what we got. From the minimalist set to the sparse but expertly fluid stage direction, everything seemed to work perfectly.
There is a great moment near the beginning of the play when Peter, played by Charlie Hewson '04, asks junior Brian Barrett's Jerry to sit next to him on a park bench.
"I'll start walking around in a little while," Jerry responds, "and eventually I'll sit down." Jerry's "eventually" takes quite a while, so for the first half of the play there is no movement whatsoever from either actor as Peter sits on the bench and Jerry stands frozen in place on the opposite side of the stage.
Instead of distracting the audience with unnecessary stage direction, all focus is centered on the exchange of words between Peter and Jerry. This way we can feel every nuance and progression of their odd little relationship, formed on a Sunday afternoon near a quiet park bench on the East side of Central Park.
Hewson effectively portrays the weak but quietly dignified Peter. Proud but effeminate, he is similar to Daddy in "The American Dream" — thoroughly emasculated by the overwhelming women that dominate his household.
Barrett plays Jerry in an unusual but surprisingly compelling manner. The Jerry I am accustomed to is clearly insane but oddly loud, strong and confident. But Barrett, shuffling his feet rhythmically and fluttering his hands in nervous arcs, gave the character a meek autistic feel that worked extremely well.
With the two one-act Albee plays presented at Intime this weekend, one comes off substantially better in my opinion. "The American Dream" has its rough patches, but "The Zoo Story" is virtually flawless. In conjunction, the two plays are sure to both entertain and start dialogue as you leave the theater.
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