“The Wake” through July 28 at the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center on the Kean University main campus in Union, N.J.

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L. to R. Kathy McCafferty, Kelley Rae O'Donnell, James Gushue, Wayne Maugans
Photo credit: Mike Peter

Once again blood proves to be thicker than water and certainly true in the wake of the hurricane that will batter the lives of the four harried characters in Tammy Ryan’s dramatic comedy, the winner among 659 submissions to the Premiere Play Festival, For all the wind that is whipped up on the stage from both humans and from nature, “The Wake” regrettably also puts into question the quality of the other 658 submissions. 

Despite drowning in more themes and dramatic genres that it can reasonably handle, it nevertheless holds a strange fascination for the observer. That Ryan’s play also exists uneasily in a space that exists somewhere between the eerily metaphysical and the plane of magical realism doesn’t help us connect to it. This does not to imply that the four actors thrown into the wake, under the direction of the theatre’s producing artistic director John, J. Wooten, have not faced their fate with gusto. 

  

As a fan of Ryan’s previous plays “Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods,” and “Soldier’s Heart,” both of which were produced at Premiere Stages, my disappointment largely springs from anticipation. This play is set in a beach house rental in Florida, a short driving distance from Universal in Orlando. It is here is where two estranged sisters Maggie (Kelley Rae O’Donnell) and Rosemary (Kathy McCafferty) have decided to meet in a semblance of peace and forgiveness to scatter the ashes of their sister Coleen.

It becomes apparent quickly that Maggie and Rosemary are embracing a truce and have little in common with each other or for that matter with the men in their lives. They have arrived with plenty of emotional baggage and a minimum of hope and expectancy at the beach where they spent time as children. Maggie is particularly careful with the urn of ashes, the contents of which by consent are to be dispersed into the ocean. Maggie’s slovenly and blustery boy friend Doyle (James Gushue) and Rosemary’s openly condescending husband Ed (Wayne Margins) display just the kind of reticent commitment to the event we might expect.

  

For most of the play, Maggie and Rosemary are given to raising their shrill voices to renew the mainly strident bickering that has defined them as discontents over a lifetime. They only have in common what one did and one didn’t do for their foot-loose/alcoholic sister who died from cancer. Ed and Doyle are seen mostly at loggerheads baiting each other with their opposing ideologies. Ed is revealed as a corrupt accountant for a company that makes its money by fracking. He makes no bones about how he feels about nature-loving Doyle’s conservationist posturing.

Far from battening down the hatches until it is too late, there is virtually no serious consideration given to dealing with the impending hurricane-- except opening bottles of wine and ignoring the posted evacuation that has incredulously gone unnoticed on the front door.

Once these four finally pay heed to the alerts, they discover that the hurricane is named Colleen. ooooh. Of course, we are meant to surmise a mystical cause for this as it presumably serves to re-unite the sparring sisters. This becomes more apparent with a flurry of attacks on the house by a blue heron and the appearance of other sea creatures. More realistically, one might ponder upon the sheer reckless parenting of Rosemary and Ed who have no qualms about having left their two teenage children to fend for themselves without supervision or a day at Universal with a hurricane brewing. This, while they fulfill what they perceive as their obligation to Rosemary who has been Colleen’s care-giver in final last days. 

Maggie is fueled by a repressed guilt that is bound to surface before the play ends; Maggie is filled with a festering rage that is directed mostly at Ed and resigned to ignore his sexual philandering. Doyle, who, in his garb and tooth-challenged smile, could be mistaken for a shipwrecked pirate, seems perfectly at home preparing for the worst and explaining to all the unexplainable.

Although these characters are over-loaded with back-stories, neurotic personalities and socio-political agendas, they neither, through dialogue nor deeds, inspire our empathy. Neither do they conspire to create a credible dramatic conflict to warrant our concern. Despite the  very effective set designed by Bethanie Warnpol Watson, “The Wake” realistically only puts to rest a play about four hapless people of interest only to that one ill-fated blue heron. It is definitely worth experiencing by anyone interested in the development of dramatic literature. It could wash up again on regional stages but only after a lot more work by this definitely up and coming playwright and a tough dramaturg.

“The Wake” is For tickets and performance information call 908 - 737 - 7469 or http://www.premierestagesatkean.com/.

"The Bridges of Madison County"- Post closing review based on performance on 06/29/19 at SOPAC

Jennifer Ellis and Bryant Martin

“The Bridges of Madison County” may be the most purely romantic musical of our times. As re-envisioned by book writer Marsha Norman (‘night, Mother”) with a score by Jason Robert Brown (“Parade”) it is, like the novel upon which it is based by Robert James Waller, totally concentrated on a brief and passionate four-day love-affair. Nothing and no one of consequence interferes with its telling. Despite winning the Tony for Best Score in 2014, its run on Broadway was unfortunately brief for reasons not essential to this review. 

The recent production given by the American Theatre Group in residence at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) was also brief. . . so brief that my review is being posted after the final curtain.

So it is with regret that I cannot urge you to see it, as it was a glorious production (performed the last two weekends of June), beautifully acted, directed and presented with consummate skill and artistry on every level. Writing simply for the record, however, gives me the pleasure to continue thinking about how effectively  Brown and Norman embraced the story. Frankly, I wondered when I first heard that this vocally demanding musical was being presented locally if the powers that run the A.T.G and the director assigned to the production could deliver the essentials. They did and gloriously.

My only wish is that a return engagement might be in order as I suspect word-of-mouth would be positive even just based on the cheering and applause that greeted the cast at the curtain call of the Saturday evening performance I attended. Briefly, the setting is rural Iowa during the 1960s and on a farm where Italian war-bride Francesca Johnson (Jennifer Ellis) has tried to forget Naples if not her disarming accent. For the twenty years she has spent contentedly consigned to her marriage to Bud (Jared Bradshaw) and raising two perfectly normal if constantly testy children, excellently played by Alex Carr and Courtney Martin. 

But I am chiefly going to remember the suburb performances given Ellis and by Bryant Martin, who plays Robert Kinkaid. Kinkaid played the photographer who not only lands in Iowa on assignment to photograph the covered bridges in the county but also lands in Francesca’s bed. To explain...his arrival coincides with Bud and the children’s departure for a four-day county fair. 

In the event you don’t know more of the romance between Francesca and Robert, it is enough to say that an emotional connection arises between them which leads them irretrievably to an affair. The growing and lasting passion for each other that will inevitably withstand separation, the son’s diploma, the daughter’s marriage and the husband’s death  is the pulse that drives the musical. It is an understatement to say that the tall, affable, good-looking Robert finds Francesca’s charm and exuberance attractive. Just let Ellis shimmering soprano voice and Martin’s resonant baritone bring all of the dramatic richness out of their solos and duets and we are all goners. 

It is difficult to imagine any other performers who might surpass them in bringing this story to the fore. Under the fluid and exceptionally well-paced direction of Merete Muenter (also the choreographer), all the supporting characters are nicely enlivened and add more dimension to the action as do the dancers in some lovely shadowy integrated ballets.

Praise is due to the eight musicians who play the melodic and multi-textured score under Keith Levenson’s baton. Maybe it’s also the splendid acoustics of the hall, but the score sounded much more vibrant and pleasurable than I recall. Minimal but functional set decor by designer Bethanie Wampol was enhanced with some stunningly atmospheric projections and by Douglas Macur’s expert lighting. The American Theatre Group has a real task ahead of them...to come up with a show as rewarding, memorable and expertly presented as is this one. Bravo.