Acting Up

Cilicia A. Yakhlef

A QUESTION OF MERCY

Theater On Broadway
13 South Broadway
303-860-9360
Through March, 2001

Ever get drawn into a minuet when what you really wanted to do was swing? Okay, me neither. But the analo-gy is a good one when it comes to what I was expecting from a little play by the name of A Question of Mercy currently running at Theater on Broadway.

David Rabe's play, originally produced in New York, deals with the issues surrounding assisted suicide and AIDS. Ripe subject matter, an experienced cast and one of my all time favorite Denver directors, Nicholas Sugar, had me prepared to see what I'd already decided was going to be an awesome play. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

There was nothing overtly wrong with the piece, or the performances for that matter, but so much substance was missing on all fronts that it was easy to feel gypped. I ambled out of the theater humming that old classic and letting the words "Is that all there is? Is that all there is? If that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing..." tumble from the depths of my vague memory into the forefront of my mind to voice the melancholia I felt at the loss of what could have been a really great play.

Even the opening scene had me jazzed. Deborah Persoff walked into the spotlight casting classically angular features and perfectly pointed diction around the stage as if fishing for hungry audience members, and I was ready to bite. She gazed just beyond the back wall to a voiced recollection of her nephew carrying Christmas presents: "His little face as bright as a bulb above the festive packages he bore." Evocative lines, intensity, experimental presentation ... a nice little segue into present action and a revealing interchange between the doctor and Thomas. The dramatic action was progressing nicely until I realized there was something missing from the dialogue. There was a static flat line running between the characters that didn't play rightÑ a sense of withheld emotion you could say, perhaps best realized in the words of the good doctor herself when she says, "Ambivalence is an equal pull in opposing directions."

Although I'd love to say that the emotionally blanched dialogue was solely responsible for the pervasive chill surrounding the normally hot subjects of euthanasia and AIDS, a statement like that wouldn't be wholly true. After all, as Anthony, the character at the epicenter of the play, Marc Burg, flat of voice and monochromatic in character, manages only to deliver a dull rendition of an ambiguously dying gay man-- expressionless and void throughout most of the play. Perhaps there was some artful intention behind portraying the main character as already dead, yet speaking. If so, it didn't work for me.

In contrast, poignancy emanates from the repressed and troubled character of Dr. Chapman. Directly addressing the audience, Deborah Persoff conveys a tangible emotional wince with lines

like, "He offered his lesions to me as evidence that he had nothing to live for." As the doctor, Deborah Persoff gives not only the best performance on the stage, but presents the audience with the one and only riveting character. It is perhaps the doctor who is set to act as the social conscience within the dramatic framework of this play. Her character is dramatized even more by the playwright's insertion of surrealistic mis-en-scenes and the persistent vehicle of direct address through which the doctor continuously speaks to the audience.

Richard Cook gives a convincing performance as Thomas, Anthony's part-ner. Unfortunately Cook has the monumental task of trying to negotiate some of the most awkward script developments I've ever seen. For instance, the character of Susanah (Trina O'Neill) is dropped on stage mid-plot as an after-thought antagonist. Sophomorically-speaking antagonists do motivate the crisis action; however, this one was totally unnecessary and only distracted from the interior conflict of the three main characters. Furthermore, it is Susanah who spouts off dada poetics in one breath and fires the doctor in the next because she has triumphantly, albeit unbeknownst to poor Anthony, foiled the 'assisted' portion of his assisted suicide.

Sound confusing? Not really. Just the unfortunate antics of genre tactics in their pervasive endeavor to find their way into art. Bluntly speaking, this piece didn't need any nifty plot twists, oblique characters or stock antagonists. Three characters fully engaged with the interior conflict set about by such 'a question of mercy' would have worked very well. Even a surrealistic, experimental, full-length monologue by the doctor alone could have been intriguingly successful.

Sadly though, as is, the plot gets pulled thin by too many unruly dramatic intentions to impact the audience with much force. Kudos to Deborah Persoff for carrying off a fine performance and for delivering what impact was to be felt by the audience in this production. And as for one of my favorite directors, well ... nice scrims Nick. A great set, outstanding use of lighting/ backlight and cool parallel action sequences provide enough technical acumen in tandem with Persoff's performance for me to recommend this play, holes and all. C