REVIEW: ‘LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE’ MESSAGE MUDDIED (written Dec. 15, 2006)
Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home, now playing at the Bang and the Clatter Theatre, is plagued by too many competing voices, much like the competition members of a messy family engage in to be heard.
It’s likely that the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright meant for the character Stephen to be the most enduring one in the play, but the water’s too muddied in this piece to make that clear. This sardonic comedy starts out in the mode of a fable, with a Man and Woman representing parents narrating a story of a dysfunctional family teetering on a precipice toward disaster during the holidays.
Three other actors in black operate puppets that represent the couple’s three children, whose voices also are represented by the narrators in the beginning.
This one-act piece is really made up of two distinct plays: The puppets disappear and the story shifts to 25 years later, with the puppet operators separating themselves from the child puppets and assuming the roles of the grown-up children.
One by one, each sibling narrates how he or she has moved on to have failed or warped relationships, thanks to the damage their parents inflicted on them as children.
This is an East meets West kind of play, with Vogel incorporating the tradition of Bunraku puppet theater into her storytelling. Under the skillful dir ection of Sean McConaha, that striking Asian influence and a highly capable cast of nine are the glue that holds together an otherwise forgettable story.
The look of this BNC production is surprisingly, starkly beautiful with its Asian red set pieces and flourish of haiku poems on the backdrops.
This play, which is adults-only fare, is a far cry from any sort of sentimental holiday production you’re likely to find at most other Northeast Ohio theaters.
Disappointment is a recurring theme among nearly all the characters. Vogel’s strongest message is that when we set ourselves up for the “perfect” Christmas, the reality of strife within modern-day families is bound to make the experience fall way short of expectations.
It’s nothing new to hear that American families are screwed up, no matter how perfect we want the holidays to be. And who hasn’t seen conflicts stemming from infidelity and insecurity intensify when the adults have had a few to many nips of “holiday cheer?”
In that sense, Vogel isn’t offering us material that’s too original. What seizes our attention is the unique staging.
The philandering father is disappointed in his wife and feels stifled by his family, the mother is disappointed that her husband is no longer attracted to her, and each of the children feels unfulfilled in his or her own way.
The theater’s borrowed puppets look eerily like aliens with their spooky white faces. Vogel’s choice of having puppets represent the kids offers interesting symbolism about how parents treat or view their children.
Actors Sara Cutlip, Heather Irwin and Ryan McMullen, who are not trained puppeteers, handle their puppets with surprising grace and fluidity. When these “kids” pick and jab at each other in the back seat of what represents a filthy Rambler, the sibling rivalry looks and feels like the real deal.
The dramatic lighting used when each puppet handler gives up his or her puppet and transforms into the adult version of the child is somberly ritualistic.
Mary Beth DeBerry also adds grace and beauty to the production through dance, using Christmas decor props along with Rob Grant and Elizibeth Miller.
McConaha has made a bold directorial decision to use real actors behind a screen instead of shadow puppets in the latter part of the play, making the experience (especially an erotic scene) much more immediate.
Teresa McDonough excels as the Woman, as does Heather Irwin as oldest child Rebecca. Ryan McMullen, normally known as a thoroughly engaging actor, seemed to be having trouble connecting with some of his material during his long monologue.
Vogel offers a big element of the mystical as she explores how we are all bound to our relatives by a breath, and how each moment is connected to the next.
She won the 1998 Pulitzer for How I Learned to Drive, and premiered The Long Christmas Ride Home in Providence, Rhode Island in 2003. The play saw its Off-Broadway premiere the same year.
Yet the last third of The Long Christmas Ride Home is disappointingly abrupt, with the earlier story line between the parents completely dropped. Although the play is well-acted and deftly directed, both the structure and content leave something to be desired.
– KERRY CLAWSON
For more information, see www.bnctheatre.com or call 330-606-5317.
