Seattle Claims World Premiere of New Theresa Rebeck Play by a Week
Six days from this Opening Night at Act Lab, this same play will also open at the Dorset Playhouse in Vermont. Theatre22 and Act Lab’s co-production in Seattle is the true world premiere.
Director Julie Beckman has drawn vivid performances from the three actors in this show. Beckman culled Downstairs from the four scripts read in last year’s Construction Zone series for this full production. Good choice.
The set design by Robin Macartney places us in an unfinished suburban basement, complete with a peg-board with tools, a sink that doesn’t work, and exposed insulation on a partially finished wall.
Somewhere I heard a quip that family are those people who feel obliged to take you in when nobody else will. In this case, Irene has taken in her brother Teddy (Christine Marie Brown and Brandon Ryan). Ryan opened the first act with about 45 seconds of acting without words that let’s us know he’s quirky. Irene enters the basement to strongly encourage her brother to find other lodgings. It doesn’t go smoothly. Teddy needs a place to recover because he believes he’s been poisoned by a co-worker and has no where else to turn. He’s living in her basement but she doesn’t want him to call it “living” there. Teddy’s feels he has a right to stay in his sister’s house if she invites him to.
Teddy further believes that their mom’s will and how Irene handled their mother’s estate cheated him out of his portion of the inheritance. Irene’s husband Gerry used that money to buy the house. Irene counters it was more complicated than that. And leaves it at that. From Teddy’s erratic tics and flashes of stream-of-consciousness monologues one might suspect they maneuvered him away from his portion without bothering to legally establish whether he was competent enough to handle his own finances.
Teddy genuinely loves his sister’s cooking, and Irene soaks up this form of positive affirmation. In bits and pieces, we learn that Gerry dominates Irene. Irene is clearly caught in the middle among the demands from her husband, her rights to self-agency, and the needs of her brother.
Irene’s not working because Gerry is “traditional” and prefers that she not work. She breaks down at one point and says her life is in shambles and Gerry doesn’t want children. She quotes him with great pain, “What he really said was ‘I wouldn’t have children with you.'”
When Gerry walks into the basement near the end of Act One, he intends to intimidate Teddy enough to scare him away. John Q. Smith, as Gerry, brought am instant chill onto the stage and it felt like the temperature dropped five degrees. He claims Irene has been “very upset” by Teddy’s chaotic behavior and wanted him out immediately. When Teddy asks about a couple of rescue dogs Irene took in, Gerry simply says they “disappeared” because “nobody cared about them.” He implies that should Teddy “disappear,” except for his sister, nobody else would care.
Irene interrupts them with a few purchases, a new green coat for her self and several shirts for Teddy. With his sister there, Teddy maneuvers to avoid agreeing to Gerry’s demands that he leave right away.
In the next scene, we listen with Teddy to the sound of Irene and Gerry fighting upstairs over his head (kudos to Kyle Thompson, the Sound Designer). Suddenly we hear thwack and the sound of a body falling to the floor. End Act One.
At the close of Act One the roles are now fully revealed of the classic Drama Triangle: Gerry is the persecutor, Irene the victim, and Teddy is possibly the rescuer. Stephen Karpman, MD, first presented the Drama Triangle in 1968 using fairy tales to illustrate his theory. Karpman provided this insight:
Only three roles are necessary in drama analysis to depict the emotional reversals that are drama. These action roles, … are the Persecutor, Rescuer, and Victim …. Drama begins when these roles are established, or are anticipated by the audience. There is no drama unless there is a switch in the roles.
Act Two opens again with Irene and Teddy in the basement. She had prepared a picnic basket with several sandwiches and a salad. She’s worked up because Teddy learned from Gerry that she had rescued two dogs on separate occasions. Clearly, Irene needed to find something to take care of. Somehow though both dogs “ran away,” according to Gerry, while she was out running errands.
Teddy does leave and Irene searches the basement and comes across disturbing information and what business Gerry really engages in. Confronted with this evidence, can she find the courage to force a switch in roles?
Cast: Christine Marie Brown (Irene) ][ Brandon Ryan (Teddy) ][ John Q. Smith (Gerry)
Creative Team: Julie Beckman, Director ][ Margaret Toomey, Costume Designer ][ Gabrielle Strong, Lighting Designer ][ Kyle Thompson, Sound Designer ][ Robin Macartney, Set and Props Designer
Content ( & trigger) warning: Contains suggestive situations of domestic violence, mental illness, and references to cruelty to animals
Downstairs by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Julie Beckman. An ACT Lab and Theatre22 co-production. Runtime: 2 hours with one 10 minute intermission. ACT Lab, ACT Theatre, 700 Union St. Seattle ( Downtown). Thurs-Sat at 8 PM, Sun 2 PM Matinee. Tickets: acttheatre.org. Runs Jun 14 to July 9.
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