Joyce Carol Oates opens tonight’s performance by reading the Emily Dickinson poem that inspired her play:
Wild nights – Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah – the Sea!
Might I but moor – tonight –
In thee!
Because the piece is performed in head-and-shoulders squares, stage directions are read throughout by the wonderful John Fitzgibbon who veritably conjures atmosphere adding immeasurably.
Madelyn (Eleanor Handley) and Harold Krim (Michael Satow), having decided their upper middle class life is less than satisfying, decide to buy a Repiluxe for their home. These are synthetic humans (the company disdains “robot”) who will “respond to new environments just as originals would have.”
The showroom is run by a man (John Fitzgibbon) curiously unfamiliar with many of the famous artists and iconic poets about whom they inquire. Harold expresses his preference for a “manly” artist like Picasso or Rothko who might inspire him to take up painting again, while Madelyn longs for a poet to encourage her own nascent writing efforts. There are, of course, limitations as to who’s available based on copyrights.
Available at a special 20 percent discount through April, they choose Emily Dickinson who Madelyn hopes will be “better than an adopted child; a sister poet.” She recreates Dickinson’s actual bedroom in their well appointed home. The unpacked “mannequin,” is about the size of a twelve year old. (Dickinson was 5’3”.) When activated, she’s disoriented and shy.
Emily (Marina Shay) keeps to her room reading books she’s brought, knitting, or, eventually, scribbling on scraps of paper (about which Madelyn is thrilled) despite repeated invitations to join her hosts. Otherwise, she drifts ethereally around the house in white, cleaning and baking while Madelyn and Harold sleep.
The poet facsimile persists in calling them Mistress and Master which makes Madelyn uncomfortable, but appeals to Harold. While her husband spends more time in the city (where he works), Madelyn persists in trying to make a friend of her guest, taking up poetry again with great enthusiasm. She gets little in return. Harold is annoyed at his wife’s obsession, calling Emily “it,” decrying her as only a machine. He feels shut out.
Emotion escalates. Madelyn and Harold get a stark look at themselves and each other, erupting separately and very differently. That which was swept under an undoubtedly expensive rug emerges in a suffocating dust cloud.
Oates has described with insight each character’s relationship with Emily both as computerized being and the person she seems. Events are credible in context. The story is imaginative and intriguing. One might wish for more Dickinson specifics to “flesh-out” that character. And I find the play’s last line, rife with instant assumption, unsatisfying.
After curtain, Oates states, “I think I wanted to write a comedy of the appropriation of high culture by people who can’t deal with it.” She finds the play funny. I do not. This is an almost unremittingly dark (not dire) piece.
Director Michael Parva has done a marvelous job in establishing personalities and implying action. Without physicality, timing and expression increase in importance. Both are handled deftly. I admit to not understanding his choice of making Emily sound robotic, however. Surely a mechanism of this sophistication would emit smooth speech and turn her head without difficulty. It seems like differentiating overkill.
Acting is excellent. Eleanor Handley convinces us of underlying need and pain even as she “fits” into a lifestyle she now questions. One would swear she and Emily are in the same room. Michael Satow’s anger is gradually leaked. When he spirals out in a shocking situation, we believe it. Marina Shay’s Emily is hampered by direction, but her dramatic presence works. John Fitzgibbon is an able narrator (see above) and appealingly quirky salesman.
The National Arts Club with The Directors Company presents
Wild Nights by Joyce Carol Oates
Directed by Michael Parva
Featuring Eleanor Handley, Michael Satow, Marina Shay, John Fitzgibbon
Film Editor Matt Gurren
Spot-on Music by Thomas Newman
Photo Courtesy of The National Arts Club
