By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance" is looking more like a stage classic, especially as it is played at the Rogue Theatre in a thought-provoking production directed by David Morden. Written and first produced in 1966 following Albee's breakthrough success with "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," "A Delicate Balance" could be read then as a battering of traditional values by a younger generation eager to make its own rules.
Agnes the control freak was the villain. The fact that the play ended with Agnes assuming she is still in control became a warning signal to those boisterous boomers to take no prisoners as they come of age. Claire, who drinks too much and sees the limitation of proper civility too clearly, is heralded as the hope for society's future.
And she's' a woman -- signaling young leftists to eschew the rigid male leaders and put their faith in spontaneous females who aren't afraid to stand up for new ways of thinking.
Seen more than 40 years later, the gist of these social metaphors has changed. Instead of worrying about who is in control, these days the more important issue is whether or not family values, or traditional values, are more important then the larger society's values.
The domineering Agnes also seems less like Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest," more like a concerned leader who gets at least a little sympathy for having to make some tough decisions. We still don't like her, but we understand her tough love a little better -- and she's a woman, too!
Thoughts of Hilary Clinton come to mind.
The role of Claire the free-thinker becomes more like comedy relief. She's counter-culture, for sure, and extremely resourceful but maybe not the answer she once seemed to represent.
Morden's thoroughly considered directing puts Cynthia Meier's performance as Agnes squarely in the center of everyone's thoughts. Meier is brilliant in catching not only Agnes' determination to maintain the rules of civility she values so highly, but to also show flashes of the fear Agnes feels if her ball of tightly of tightly-wound rules begins to loosen and unwind.
In scene after scene Meier finds ways to show her internal struggle to keep the howling hounds of disorder at bay, and sustain the delicate balance that assures her personal survival. It is an exceptional feat of sustained concentration.
Joseph McGrath as Agnes' silent husband Tobias projects convincing gravitas as a loyal supporter who loves order but isn't sure how to attain it. Agnes knows how, so he supports her. But Tobias is also the idealist able to put his own selfish interests on hold in order to stand up for some greater purpose.
Tobias has been setting his own feelings aside for years, but McGrath is also good at letting us know the pressure inside this Tobias has been building for a very long time. He can't be intimidated forever.
All the supporting roles are handled with skill. Amy Almquist as the free-spirited Claire has escaped the smothering attitudes of Agnes, her older sister. But Claire also loves these stuffed-shirt relatives. They are family.
Avis Judd as Agne's oft-married daughter Julia is quicker to anger and more insistent on changing her family, not just running away as Claire has done.
Maxine Gillespie and Morden play the visiting couple Edna and Harry who emphasize their belief in the rights of friendship according to the expectations of the times. Their purpose in this play is to force Agnes and Tobias to choose between their loyalties to their family and to their friends.
There once was a time when family solidarity always came first and everyone agreed that was best. These days with divorced couples and multiple marriages, grandparents stashed in nursing homes and nobody agreeing on the rules for raising step-children, loyalty doesn't always come with a guarantee.
"A Delicate Balance" continues through Nov. 29 at the Rogue Theatre, 300 E. University Blvd. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $24 regular admission, pay-what-you-will Thursdays, Nov. 12 and 19. For details and reservations, 551-2053, or visit www.theroguetheatre.org
No comments:
Post a Comment