“Lucy Thurber’s The Hill Town Plays
“Scarcity”
I’ve
now seen five plays – “Scarcity,” “Where We’re Born,” “Killers and Other
Family,” “Ashville,” “Stay” – all by
Lucy Thurber over the course of two weeks as part of the “Inaugural Theater: Village Festival, an annual
theatrical event of five plays centered around one playwright or theme running
simultaneously in five different West Village venues.” All five plays are being
performed between August 14 and September 28 under the auspices of Rattlestick
Playwrights Theater in association with Axis Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre &
The New Ohio Theatre.
Only one of the five (“Ashville”) is having its world premiere and
one play (“Stay”) has been given a major rewrite. Not having seen any of these plays
before, I was anticipating, based on the buzz, for some very special and/or
stimulating experiences. A press release explains: “Each of the ‘Hill Town
Plays’ examines a pivotal stage in a woman’s life – from a childhood of
poverty, alcoholism, and abuse in a western Massachusetts mill town through
college and coming to terms with one’s sexual identity, and on to adulthood and
a successful writing career.”
While the plays contain fictitious characters, they are presumably
and essentially dramatically created reflections of people and events that stem
from Thurber’s life and background – – – raised in oppressive poverty. I can
only say “Wow” after having seen the terrific, often terrifying and brilliantly
acted “Scarcity,” on August 21st at the Cherry Lane Studio Theater.
I’m so glad that I picked “Scarcity” for a starter as it is clear that it is the
twelve year-old Rachel, touchingly played by Issy Hanson-Johnston, who is the
stand-in for the young Thurber.
As a witness to the dysfunctional, disturbing behavior of her crudely
articulate parents, Rachel is a resourceful as well as resolute survivor who
finds solace in books. It is in the small Hill Town in Western Massachusetts where she lives and where she pins her
hopes for a brighter future on her exceptionally bright sixteen-year-old brother
Billy. Will Pullen is making a notable professional debut as Billy, whose extraordinary
scholastic aptitude has made it possible for him to apply for a scholarship to
a school for the gifted. He is supportive and loving to his sister with whom he
shares the family’s only indication of civility and intelligence and that life
may have more to offer than deprivation.
The play resounds with Thurber’s ear for unfiltered earthy talk,
especially from the mouths of the brutally out-spoken mother Martha (Didi
O’Connell) and her mean-drunk, mostly out-of-work father Herb (Gordon Joseph
Weiss). O’Connell gives a memorable performance as Martha the ferociously
protective provider with a low-paying job as a manager in a mall. Weiss is close
to her equal in arresting our attention as Herb, the volatile alcoholic whose
behavior often borders on the deranged. Martha and Herb may be prime examples
of parents from hell, but they do create a vivid portrait of poverty-immersed, minimally-educated
poor Americans. Their built-in aversions and suspicions to just about
everything outside their frame of reference are palpable.
The play, under Daniel Talbot’s splendid direction, pivots on the
uneasy relationship that develops between the bright, good-looking Billy and
the ill-at-ease school teacher Ellen (Natalie Gold) whose keen interest in Billy
and in fostering his education begins to unnerve Martha and Herb.
In as much as “Scarcity” reveals the lack of material things in
the lives of this family, help, in addition to food stamps, comes from Cousin
Louis a policeman (a very fine and quirky Michael Warner). There is some
indication that he has received sexual favors on the side from Martha for
bringing the family groceries. This is apparently no secret to Louis’ blousy
wife Gloria (Pamela Shaw) who is everyone’s equal in being fowl-mouthed and
often quite funny.
Just as funny, but also shockingly revelatory, is how responsive
Martha is to Herb’s sexual advances. What gives the play a bitter-edged
poignancy is seeing Martha and Herb forming a united front to keep an outsider
from invading and disrupting the guarded sanctity of their family. Rachel, her
alert young mind already aware of the danger of staying put and complacent, has
every reason to formulate, as has her brother, and escape route.
“Scarcity” (Originally produced by the Atlantic Theater Company in
2007, this revival is produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in
association with Cherry Lane Studio Theatre, 38 Commerce Street through
September 28, 2013.
“Where We’re Born”
My expectations were high for “Where We’re Born” on August 22. But
they were dashed by a production that unfortunately I didn’t feel measured up
to the needs of the play, essentially a touching, if also brutal account of a complicated
young woman who returns to her home town to stay with a family member after her
first semester at a prestigious East Coast college. Despite the recognition of
Thurber’s voice in the dialogue, the performances appeared egregiously self-indulgent
and unfocused, under the labored direction of Jackson Gay. I suspect that Betty
Gilpin, an actor whom I have seen give fine performances in a number of Off
Broadway plays, might possibly have been guided by another director to give a
more persuasive/interesting-to-watch performance in the key role of Lilly.
We are committed to watching Lilly as she is unwittingly drawn
into the dangerously enveloping and psychologically polluting environment she has
tried to leave behind. Cautiously returning to the small Hill Town in Western Massachusetts, Lilly also wants to be seen and heard as
the new woman she is trying hard to become. The year is set at 2003 and Lilly’s
intelligence may have afforded her a way out of poverty, but not entirely freed
her from the pull of family ties where unabashedly puerile behavior, drugs and
alcohol are the most common connective tissue between consenting adults.
Estranged from her mother, Lilly feels strongly attached to her
cousin Tony (Christopher Abbott), with whom she has come to stay while on her
break. Despite a lingering affection for Tony, Lilly is also attracted to Tony’s
live-in girl friend Franky (MacKenzie Meehan), a very pretty waitress. In spite
of the committed loving relationship that exists between Tony and Franky, Lilly
is apparently eager to exercise her emerging sexual identity and isn’t above
attempting to seduce the insecure but also curious Franky. That Tony doesn’t
exactly curtail his need for a little extra curricular approval of his virility
provides a provocative undercurrent in this play about desires that will not be
suppressed, denied or defended.
Two of Tony’s friends Vin (Nick Winthrop Lawson) and Drew (Daniel
Abeles) hang out at the ramshackle house and talk and drink a lot as they define
for us and probably to themselves what it means to be hangers-on. It was
incredibly difficult to hang on to anything or anyone in this production.
Originally produced by the Rattlestick Playwright Theater in 2003
(with a cast, under the direction of Will Frears, that included Marin Ireland and Thomas Sadusky),
Originally produced by The Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in
2003, this revival of “Where We’re Born” by Rattlestick will be performed through September
28, 2013.
“Killers & Other Family”
I had forgotten when we approached the Axis Theatre at One Sheridan Square on August 23 that it was the old location
of the Absurd Theatre Company where its artistic director the late Charles
Ludlam appeared as Camille among other divas of dramatic literature. The old
dungeon of a theater is now all clean and chrome and comfortable and home to
“Killers & Other Family.” This is the third time around for this tense and
disturbing play about a young woman living with her female lover in New York in 2009, but who finds herself unable to
disengage from the Svengali-like hold of her former male lover. The series is back
on track with strong performances under the direction of Caitriona McLaughlin.
“Killers & Other Family” is propelled by a tension that starts early and builds
steadily to a stunning conclusion. It left me as wiped-out as the performers also
appear to be in this unnerving ninety minute play without an intermission.
It is 2009 and Elizabeth (Samantha Soule) is working on her
dissertation and living with her lover Claire (Aya Cash). Their lives are
upended by the unexpected arrival of Elizabeth’s brother Danny (Shane McRae) and his
friend who is Elizabeth’s former lover Jeff (Chris Stack). They have committed a heinous
crime and are on the lam. While the desperate Danny promises Elizabeth that they will be on their way if she gives
them enough money to get to Mexico, the unstable Jeff is unable to believe
that Elizabeth has jilted him for a woman. Even as the
situation becomes increasingly testy and close to unbearable for the bewildered
Claire, it serves to trigger in Elizabeth old patterns of behavior. Violence is the
inevitable result in the light of Claire’s condescending response to the men
and in the face of Elizabeth’s inability to cut loose.
“Killer and Other Family” was originally produced by Rattlestick
Playwrights Theater in 2009. This revival with Axis Company will be performed
at Axis Theater, One Sheridan Square through September 28,
2013.
“Ashville”
Chronologically, not that it makes all that much difference, but
this play is set in 1997 and the young woman is determined to keep moving
toward self-discovery and away from a past muddied by poverty and muddled by disabling
relationships. She is now Celia (Mia Vallet, who is giving a terrific
performance in her Off Broadway debut). Neighbors who carouse, drink and smoke cigarettes
and pot make frequent visits to the small row house where Celia lives with her
mother Shelley (Tasha Lawrence), a coarse, crude woman whose main concern is
keeping the flame alive with her latest boyfriend Harry (Andrew Garman). Shelley
is also keen on fostering the relationship between Celia and Jake (Joe
Tippett), a construction worker who loves Celia and who keeps them supplied
with cigarettes.
Celia’s attempt to continue her studies doesn’t preclude her
curiosity about the somewhat sullen and ambitionless Joe (James McMenamin) who
spends a lot of time lounging on the sofa in the adjoining home of Joey (George
West Carruth) and his girl friend Amanda (Aubrey Dollar). Amanda’s affection
and friendship with Celia also stirs up an unsettling and misunderstood relationship
between the two women.
Director Karen Allen keeps the action flowing in a play with many
short but riveting scenes. The actors are all excellent and clearly define
their unhappiness as well as the inevitable unpleasantness of their situation. John
McDermott’s fine set design allows us to see a portion of the interior of three
of the row houses each one sharing a back porch and a front walk way. It is
good to note that the plays up to this point (with one to go) have already made
a great impression upon me and one that I wish will be shared by others.
“Ashville” (world premiere) is at the Cherry Lane Theatre (mainstage) through September
28, 2010.
“Stay”
The final play in the series for me was at the New Ohio Theatre,
and it proved to be a fine and satisfying finale to this strongly socio-political-dramatic
series of plays collectively about a young woman going through various stages of
maturity and self-discovery. Put a hyphen in the middle of “Scarcity,”
Thurber’s aptly named play and you have “Scar-City” which could also be an apt
description of the milieu in which Thurber has set most of her plays. Forever
scarred perhaps but encouraged to write not only about what life has to offer
to those who live without money, education and opportunities, but also to those
who choose not to be victims of their environment.
Whether serendipitous irony or not, Rachel (from the first play)
is back and played with a gutsy assertiveness by Hani Furstenberg. It is 2013
and Rachel is a published author and a professor at a liberal arts East Coast
college. Sharing the space in her apartment is her inner-self, surreally manifested
for us as “Floating Girl” (Jenny Seastone Stern). Rachel is for real and so is
the Floating Girl who hovers, hangs and climbs on bookcases and other objects.
and stays mostly out of the way but never out of Rachel’s mind or without
voicing an opinion or an option.
Rachel is perhaps the most psychologically tormented of Thurber’s principal
characters. In this provocative probe into what prompts Rachel to act both recklessly
and with an empowered sense of self, she is visited by her socially volatile, emotionally
unstable brother Bill, who has showed up without warning saying he has been
fired from his position with a law firm. The reasons he gives for his dismissal
provide us with clues to the kind of lives that he and his sister were subjected
to as children growing up in poverty. Filled with inner rage and despair over
his actions and hoping to find support from his sister, he, nevertheless, steps
right into another awkward situation. This one caused by Julia (Mikaela
Feely-Lehmann), an emotionally disturbed student who harbors an obsessive
infatuation with Rachel.
Seduced by Julia, Rachel takes both a defensive and an offensive
position as she finds she has to deal with the repercussions of her act that includes the
reaction of Julia’s possessive boyfriend Tommy (Brian Miskell). The
performances are all blisteringly real. This play brought to a conclusion a
series that will make me think long and hard about all the young bright and
talented people in this country who will have to figure out a way to lift
themselves out of a life of poverty or be swallowed up by it.
“Stay” (through September 28, 2013) at the New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher Street
