Radar Redux.com is expanding the traditional concept of journalism, to cover a wide array of Baltimore Arts and Culture. We are a partnership between the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, Maryland Institute College of Art, and Johns Hopkins University.
On Christmas Day, the son of a Nigerian banker, claiming ties with al-Qaida, attempted to destroy an American airliner. Following the event seemed a perfect time to stage a play about terrorism. However, the scare was short-lived and headlines were soon replaced with the economy and health care reform. Perhaps Director Vincent Lancisi wants to refresh our memories and put terrorism back on the board, so to speak.
This desire to remind us of the immediacy of terrorism seems to be the inspiration for the current run of Two Rooms at Everyman Theatre. Two Rooms, by Lee Blessing, is about an American professor taken hostage in Beirut. Much of the play takes place in the cell where Michael Wells (Clinton Brandhagen) is held. In the second room, we find his wife Lainie (Dawn Ursula), who has moved back to D.C. to try to cope with the kidnapping. In order to remain connected with Michael, Lainie spends the play sitting vigil in his home office, which she has cleared of all furnishings except a single rug.
In this play, it is hard to know who to trust – the government or the media. This dynamic is personified by State Department representative Ellen Van Oss and reporter Walker Harris. Both characters prey on a grieving Lainie and pull her in different directions. Walker (Tim Getman) appears to be the stereotypical reporter, just out to get an interview. But when he convinces Lainie to tell her story on television, his prompting leads to the release of American prisoners in Lebanon.
Deborah Hazlett plays Van Oss, the State Department official assigned to handle the hostage case of Michael Wells. While her task is essentially to keep Lainie from talking so the government can continue to pursue its own objectives, Blessing creates in Van Oss a sympathetic character. She projects photos of terrorists onto a screen against the back wall in order to give them a face. At the same time, she points out their barbarity by mentioning how it is an honor for Iranians to offer their children as martyrs.
Dawn Ursula is convincing in her portrayal as Lainie Wells. When she sees Michael sitting next to her, he is next to her. She is introspective and philosophical at times, comparing her situation to that of a warbler and cuckoo. Yet she is clever enough to play the State Department representative and reporter off one another in order to increase the chances of bringing her husband home.
Lancisi seems to focus his directorial attention on monologues, at least when it comes to Michael Wells. And justly so, since Brandhagen addresses the majority of his lines to the audience. While this makes for engrossing, candid monologues, it also means that his interactions with the other actors are not as organic as, for instance, the chemistry between Lainie and Walker. We come to understand the passion between Lainie and Michael through monologues more than anything else. At one point, Michael even screams her name when he awakens violently from a nightmare. Yet the husband-wife relationship is not as believable in scenes where Brandhagen and Ursula are physically next to each other.
His final monologue is powerful and absolutely the highlight of his performance. But overall Brandhagen devotes more energy to his monologues than to the part itself. I would have loved to see more physicality from Brandhagen. How does the blindfold and restraints hinder or liberate Michael at different points in the play? He should be climbing the walls, or at least I would be if I were in his situation.
Technically, a minimalist set was not the optimal choice. A panel of wall with a door stands in the middle of a bare stage. A column occupies each side of the wall and a lone rug rests upstage. While sparse sets can be extremely effective, here the openness of the set hindered the claustrophobic mood one expects of a terrorist cell. It was hard to believe that Michael was really trapped in a room for three years; one half expected Brandhagen to make an escape through one of the inexplicable gaping holes in the floor. The barred lighting effect made it feel a bit more like a prison cell, but was not enough to make up for the openness of the set.
Lancisi should be commended for tackling a play that deals with the personal side of terrorism. Whether audiences will receive its political message with other pressing issues at hand is unclear. Two Rooms is perhaps too little too late.
Two Rooms
Everyman Theatre
Jan 20-Feb 21
http://www.everymantheatre.org/tix.html
Tags: Everyman Theatre, Station North, terrorism, Two Rooms
Filed Under: Feature Sights
No Comments