The Delling Shore
By Sam Marks
Directed by Meredith McDonough
Review by Rachel White
Copyright © 2013 by Rachel White. All rights
reserved.
Sam Marks’ compelling new play The Delling Shore premiered Friday night, opening the 37th Humana
Festival of New American Plays.
The play at first appears to be another story about
writers together in a cabin. What actually
follows is a deceptively dark funny drama about failure, identity and desperation.
The play opens in a secluded cabin where successful
writer Thomas Wright (Jim Frangione) has invited his old writer friend Frank
Bay (Bruce McKenzie) and Frank’s daughter Adrianne (Catharine Combs) to stay
with him and his beautiful but rather apathetic daughter Ellen (Meredith
Forlenza). Frank Bay has asked Thomas to critique his new book, which Thomas
has promised to read. Frank’s daughter Adrianne, also a writer, is hoping to
land an apprenticeship with Thomas, whom she idolizes.
The characters in this play aren’t people you would
like in life, but it is fascinating to watch them claw to get what they want. What
seems to unite each of them is that they each desperately want something from
Thomas. Thomas responds to these needs by gesticulating about what a writer is
and mercilessly criticizing everyone around him. Thomas somehow connects the
idea of being a writer to one’s ability to manipulate words and people; it’s a
game to him, but it’s also his identity. Human needs and interactions are
secondary to him if they are important at all.
Jim Fragione’s portrayal of Thomas’s complete
absorption in the idea of being a writer is pristine. He plays him as utterly
confident and charming, but with something cutting and mean underneath. I hated
Thomas, but I loved hating him. I wanted
to hear what he would say next. He is ruthlessly and needlessly mean, but
always under the guise of being more learned. His daughter, a successful
banker, wants real things: a life, a boyfriend and a father who takes an
interest in her. Thomas can’t even remember what bank she works for
Frank’s esteem, on the other hand, is based
entirely on his ability to be seen as a successful writer, the ideal that
Thomas embodies. When Frank can’t be that, he becomes destructive, even
destroying his daughter’s chance of an apprenticeship. I almost wanted to see
the roles reversed. What if Frank had become successful and Thomas had not? Would
they behave differently?
Adrianne, whose rage eases out slowly throughout
the play, is a dynamic character whose innocence is as deep as her ambition.
Combs plays her as young and eager initially, but slowly reveals her as someone
who knows what she wants and will do just about anything to get it.
The characters in this play are trapped by the idea
that to be a writer, or an artist, requires some kind of joyless sacrifice of friendship,
ethics and humility until there’s nothing left but the ability to say, “I’m a
writer.” The book Wonder Boys, which is
referenced in the play, is a book about a writer who becomes obsessed with achieving
another success, and so achieves nothing. The writing then becomes a joyless
exercise.
By the end of the play, I was left wanting more and
not quite ready for the end. What Thomas
has to gain from having these people up to his cabin was not entirely clear to
me. As the other characters’ motives unravel, Thomas becomes more mysterious.
What is really the last straw for Thomas?
Had his needs been more clearly addressed, I think the conclusion would
have felt more satisfying.
Director Meredith McDonough does a great job with
the pacing of this piece, keeping the drama tight but allowing the humor to
come through, including during a writing game that goes sour. The dialogue is
taut and flows along eerily and beautifully.
The Delling Shore
February 27 - April 7, 2013
Actors Theatre of Louisville
Bingham Theatre
316 West Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202
(502) 584-1205
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