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Random Harvest
by Les Gutman
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Your imagination has always been the most trustworthy part of you. ---actor/director/husband Richard Quine, to Richard Willett's playwright, Aaron |
In the mind of every good writer, one is likely to find an admixture of two main ingredients: imagination and doubt. And so it is with Aaron (Patrick Welsh), the central character in Richard Willett's new play, Random Harvest. As he is bombarded with praise for his work (his latest play has just been nominated for a Drama Desk Award, which he goes on to win), he is haunted by questions of what it all means, and an abiding fear of that dangerous commodity, luck. What is it, he is obsessed with discovering, that causes some people, when granted success others can only dream of, to throw it all away?
Willett, a playwright whose inventiveness was demonstrated a couple of seasons ago when New Directions Theater produced his play, Triptych, in this very space (CurtainUp's review linked below) has returned with an insightful, layered, funny and surprisingly poignant play. Although its details bear some similarity to the earlier play (a gay couple that goes through a separation, an old movie that informs one of its plot lines, etc.), Willett's theme covers fresh ground.
We find Aaron in a multi-year relationship with Jimmy (Jay Alvarez), who has given up his acting career after fourteen years and is now a librarian. We also find him obsessed by a story he was working on as a fact-checker (budding playwrights have to earn a living somehow) and tormented by a dream -- or is it a supernatural reality? -- involving an obscure (but real-life) movie star by the name of Susan Peters (Kate Downing).
The "fact" story involves Randy, a high school superstar who ended his life by drinking gasoline and setting himself on fire. A series of telephone calls with the boy's mother, Donna (Ann Talman, in a fine performance in which she works hard to maintain interest even when the script makes that a bit hard), blossoms into a sort of long distance but co-dependent friendship as he struggles to unravel Randy's mystery for both of them. In the "dream," Aaron is visited by Ms. Peters (who was discovered young by director Mervyn LeRoy and cast in the 1942 film, Random Harvest, for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar), her husband, actor/director Richard Quine (Jonathan Kandel), and Greer Garson (Patricia Randell), who starred in Random Harvest with Ronald Colman. Peters later became paralyzed in a deer hunting "accident," continued doing work in film and television but died at age 31 of (according to IMDb.com, Aaron's source) "pneumonia, chronic kidney problems, and starvation."
This is one of those plays that grows on you, and that must be fully digested to be appreciated. It is not until the final few moments that many of the threads Willett has woven come together. Even then, some of its constituent parts seem overloaded and a bit incoherent. Donna reacts to the death of her son as one would expect a mother to, poring over her memories -- his ribbons, cards he gave her and so on -- but we see more of her than we need to. He also lets Peters go on too long (the greatest lapse in a generally very well-written play, and one Ms. Downing doesn't have the chops to overcome), and includes scenes with both Susan and Richard in which Aaron relates to them how they came to their end. (Wouldn't they know?) He also let Aaron's subconscious know things about them his conscious self never knew, engaging in flights of fantasy when a dose of reality would be better suited to his purposes. These are directions that do little more than divert the audience's attention.
That brings us, however, to his most inspired creation, Greer Garson, who functions as a hilarious tour guide of both past and present. From the moment she arrives, dressed in tartan skirt and sash, announcing "I'm Greer Garson, I'm dead and I'd like a cup of tea," armed with Willett's best writing, Patricia Randell steals the show: reason enough to go see it. She's nearly matched by Jay Alvarez's unapologetically fey Jimmy, a bug-eyed, gesticulating creature who drinks too much and has developed an interest in things 1964 (especially, it seems, Mary Poppins) -- that's the year his mother was sent to a mental institution. Much of Jimmy's shtick, funny as it is, seems gratuitous as it's played, but it's not -- it pays off handsomely before the play ends. He prompts one of the most heartfelt and moving separations in recent (perhaps all) memory, thanks to an epiphany after the Drama Desk Awards, which he attended alone since Aaron refused to go. His earlier infatuations with listening to the songs from Mary Poppins will seed a touching conclusion in which Aaron subtly and symbolically expresses his enduring love.
Welsh's performance is understated and deceivingly effective. There's no exaggeration in his thoughtful role, which hovers in counterpoint to the drama that suffuses the performances of both Alvarez and Randell. Director Eliza Beckwith does a fine job of staging what could be a messy series of scenes, and intelligently keeps them from accelerating out of control. Design elements are simple and low-budget, but they work well.
This is a show I'd put in the "sleeper" category, and though it's all the way up the west side, even this eastsider is glad to have made the trek.
LINKS
Triptych
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Random Harvest
by Richard Willett Directed by Eliza Beckwith with Patrick Welsh, Patricia Randell, Ann Talman, Jay Alvarez, Kate Downing and Jonathan Kandel Set Design: John Walker Lighting Design: Beth Turomsha Costume Design: Kim B. Walker Sound Design: Robert Gould Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes including 1 intermission A production of New Directions Theater HomeGrown Theater, 2628 Broadway (@ 100th Street) Telephone (212) 229-7500 Opening June 25, 2001, closing July 21, 2001 Mon, Fri - Sat @8; $15 Reviewed by Les Gutman based on 6/25/01 performance |
