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Monday, Oct 06, 2008
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Retreat toward West Seattle |
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| Retreat toward West Seattle | ||
| by Miryam Gordon -
SGN A&E Writer THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW BY WILLIAM NICHOLSON DIRECTED BY CAROL ROSCOE STARRING THERESE DEIKHANS, JOHN WRAY AND JAMES COWAN ARTSWEST THROUGH JANUARY 27 Titles are sometimes so misleading. Some even tend to turn someone off a subject before one finds out what the content is. So might this title make you veer off to another play. That is if you're not so interested in Russian something-or-other. But I'm here to tell you that the play has almost nothing to do with Moscow! In fact, this is the kind of play almost everyone in a relationship will get something out of. The relationship at hand, the marriage of Alice (Therese Deikhans) and Edward (John Wray), will ring true more often that you might like during the play. Alice and Edward have been married almost 33 years. Clearly, they were once happy and in love and now their struggle is to figure out if that's still true, as time has dulled their feelings into a kind of numbness. William Nicholson, writer of books, screenplays (Oscar-nominated for Gladiators) and plays (Shadowlands), paints a portrait that is almost stereotypical of older couples whose marriages have lost the spark. In fact, while much of the play is affecting to watch, the description is exactly stereotypical. Older married man falls for much younger woman, describing the new relationship as "easy." The person in the play who does the most work is Alice. She is the one who has to cope with being a "left woman" and how she should go on with her life. There is a certain amount of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff quality to some of the bickering between Alice and Edward, in the beginning. But while George and Martha are locked into the bitterness, Edward leaves. The struggling conversations between Alice and Edward will ring true to many. In this production, John Wray keeps himself gentle and aloof, almost too nice a guy to do what he ends up doing. The dialogue hints at more anger than Wray has chosen to display. But Alice's frustration with Edward's lack of communication is as real as any kitchen conversation between couples losing their abilities to talk to one another. Between Alice and Edward is their son, Jamie (James Cowan). Like most adult children of divorcing parents, he is stuck trying not to take sides. Cowan only hints at his inner frustration, rarely bringing much light to his character's dilemma, though he contributes nicely to the flow of the play. We don't get to know very much about Jamie. Stage values are done nicely by Pete Rush for set design and Craig Wollum for lighting. A simple kitchen and two different "sitting" areas become multiple locations with a change of light. There are columns that bring a centeredness and stability to the stage, anchoring the sober content. The play is set in England, and has that old-country feel to it. Director Carol Roscoe makes all the characters stay on stage at all times, perhaps because there are only three of them, which ended up feeling distracting, since it appeared to mean that characters not in the scene were listening, but the script doesn't acknowledge that. So, there is an awkward frozenness that might have disappeared if the characters actually walked offstage. Still, these are small issues in a generally engrossing and well-done production. In fact, audiences are reporting it to provoke a lot of couples to have conversations that start, "You do that&" ArtsWest PR Manager Rachel Jackson ruefully notes that they had no intention of creating any problems between couples. But isn't that a mark of a successful production: to draw the audience in to make them recognize themselves? For more information, go to www.artswest.org or call 206-938-0339. Comments on reviews go to sgncritic@gmail.com. |
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