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| William Ragsdale, Katie Ailion, Joby Earle, Andrew Veenstra Kelly McAndrew, Anne Bates. Photo by Carol Rosegg |
Get
your programs here. You can’t tell the players without a program.
Those attending a performance of Matthew
Greene’s Thousand Pines, which
recently premiered at Westport Country Playhouse under the direction of Austin
Pendelton, might legitimately engage in a bit of head-scratching and allow to
arise such thoughts as “What the hell’s going on up on the stage?” and “Wait a
minute, isn’t he her husband and isn’t she…?” Well, as a public service, and to
decrease the amount of dandruff left behind in the theater after the
head-scratching, I humbly offer this explication of what, I believe, Greene has
concocted.
The Thousand Pines in the title is a
junior high school that has experienced a shooting episode somewhat similar to
what occurred at Columbine. Children were killed, and three families attempt, six
months later during Thanksgiving, to deal with the tragedy in their own ways.
What may cause some of the head-scratching is that the family members in all
three families are portrayed by the same actors, and even though costume
designer Barbara A. Bell has attempted to distinguish the various members in
the different families you can’t deny that, well, the family members – or
neighbors – are, well, the same people.
This is an important play dealing
with a gripping issue. Because I was one of the head-scratchers on opening
night, I went back several nights later to see if I could understand more
clearly what the playwright was up to – and I did – mostly. I still have some
questions that the staging of the production might answer – and the playwright
might consider not being so coy about who is whom and their relationships, but
that being said, there is much to admire about Thousand Pines.
Much of the admiration must be
directed towards Kelly McAndrew (Actor 1), who plays the mother in each of the
three families. In the first family, she creates a woman in total denial of
what has occurred, someone who, with a wave of a hand and a mashing of potatoes
can make the demons disappear, demons her family, via their son, is responsible
for. Yes, this may be a spoiler alert, but it’s a necessary one: the first
family we see first is that of the child who was responsible for the shootings.
In the first family, Andrew Veenstra
(Actor 6) is the son who can’t abide his mother’s approach to the tragedy – he
will reappear, significantly, in the third scene to offer a resolution of
sorts. Then there’s his fiancé played by Katie Ailion (Actor 5) and Joby Earle
(Actor 4) who (take notice!) has had a confrontation at a local grocery store –
he claims it was with a woman who assaulted him when he attempted to buy the
last box of butter – not true!
There’s a fade-out-fade-in and we’re
in another dining room in the same town, but this time it’s the home of one of
the victims, and McAndrew, with a costume change and the deft use of eye
glasses as a prop, is now a mother seeking justice, with her ex-husband, played
by William Ragsdale (Actor 2), a lawyer, handling the case. This mother is all
business and out for whatever vengeance she can obtain from the legal system.
Her daughter (Ailion) is bitter about the attention her mother gave to the
mother’s now deceased stepson and the daughter’s lover (this seems a bit
gratuitous plot point, but, whatever…) is a teacher played by Anne Bates (Actor
3) who was at the school and…well…just listen up at the end of this scene to
understand what happened.
In the final family – again, a
family of one of the victims – McAndrew, now dressed in jeans and a man’s
work-shirt, and with a distinct change of voice, is a mother who, through
sarcasm, is simply trying to deal with the tragedy. Now, Earle is her brother,
who comes home with a broken hand (see scene 1), having been arrested by a
sheriff’s deputy (Ragsdale). This grieving family will eventually be visited by
the brother of the shooter (again, Veenstra) who, over pieces of apple pie,
will offer the possibility of closure.
Why
my initial problems with understanding what was happening? Well, besides the
fact that we have the same actors playing different roles, the set by Walt
Spangler doesn’t change – in all three scenes it looks essentially like the
same dining room, so one must pay close attention to the necessary exposition
that begins each of these scenes to understand the relationships of the characters.
There’s also the red herring about the assault described in the first scene –
you have to pay close attention to connect what happens (or is described) in
scene one with what’s going on in the third scene.
Should audiences have to work this
hard to comprehend what’s happening up on the stage? I don’t know (probably
not, unless they’re waiting for Godot). Given the subject matter of the play, I
don’t think it should be muted or left open to interpretation. The script might
be tweaked a bit, and the production team might consider how to provide audio
and visual cues to help the audience members orient themselves as we move from
household to household.
If there’s one clarifying and
unifying element in this production it’s McAndrew’s outstanding, multi-faceted
performance as the three mothers. The dining room may look the same, but she
gives us three very distinct characters, each driven by different needs,
desires, fears and coping mechanisms. I was fascinated by what she was
accomplishing the first time I saw the play and remained in awe (with a greater
understanding) with my second go-around. If you have a budding actor in the
family, bring him or her to the Country Playhouse for an engrossing acting
tutorial given by McAndrew. They will learn more in 90 minutes than they would
in two semesters in acting school
Thousand Pines runs through November 17.
For tickets or more information call 203-227-4177 or go to
www.westportplayhouse.org.
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