January 21–28, 1999
theater
Two For the Road
by Anita Donovan
Rowing into Light on Lake Adley
University of Delaware's Professional Theatre Training Program, Hartshorn Hall, Newark, DE (see directions below). In repertory with Othello and The Lady's Not for Burning until Jan. 28, 302-831-2204.
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As part of its 12-play season of classics from Othello to Harvey, the University of Delaware's Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) has included a new play by Jeanne Murray Walker, a Philadelphia playwright, University of Delaware English professor and Pew Fellowship-winning author of several books of poetry, including Fugitive Angels, Coming into History, and Gaining Time. Rowing into Light on Lake Adley, while it toys with some dark themes, is a rather amiable romantic comedy about two people who speak the same language—namely, poetry.
The eldest daughter in a mundane Norwegian family of 1904, Miss Josephine Johnson is determined to become an actress and leave the stultifying town of Parkers Prairie, MN, behind. Her mother weaves a tale of the horror and degradation that will befall Josephine should she leave, but the girl is sure she will play Ophelia on Broadway. Enter Marlow, a drifter with only one name, who unlike the seven suitors Josephine has spurned, does not want to marry her and tie her down to hearth and home. As the gossips of the community discuss her untoward behavior in hissy voiceovers, Josephine visits Marlow at the town dump, where he has established an ersatz campsite, and questions him about the wide world.
Like those John Wayne characters who show up in a western town "looking for a man," Marlow has come to Parkers Prairie to exact revenge (for what we don't discover until later in the play) and carries with him a mysterious decorated box he allows no one to touch. Josephine, being pretty and provocative, gets under his skin. After playing a little Hamlet-Ophelia improv, they conduct an imaginary boat ride on a rug meant to represent nearby Lake Adley, à la Actors Studio. Marlow soon zeroes in on the man he is seeking, and Josephine leaves town for New York—but only makes it to Pittsburgh, where the demand for Ophelias is minimal. She eventually fulfills her mother's dire predictions and becomes a "fallen woman," though with none of the brio that is usually associated with that calling.
When Josephine returns to Parkers Prairie, Marlow has exercised mercy and is probably the one man who can accept her, besmirchment and all. If nothing else, they are bound together by extravagant dialogue such as this exchange:
She: The moon is nothing but a hole cut out of the sky!
He: Yes, the moon is despicable!
Clearly, a match made in heaven.
If there are some logical glitches in this script and a few anachronistic expressions, the story is well-meaning and engrossing, especially in the hands of David Daniel and Colleen Madden, who generate quite a bit of genteel chemistry as Marlow and Josephine. Michele Tauber and Elizabeth Maher are crisp and entertaining as Josephine's mother and sister, and Peter Zazzali shows remarkable delicacy and control as the family's demented old Civil War survivor. Dual directors Sanford Robbins and Jewel Walker deliver a nuanced reading, with pace and variety.
PTTP has given Walker's play a meticulous production. On a vast stage with little furniture and props, the stunning sound and lighting effects of Michael Speechley and Eileen Smitheimer bring this play to life. Two scenes in particular stand out: Marlow alighting from the train in a cloud of smoke and Josephine returning to town in a similar smoky haze. Trial by fire, one concludes, gives these two engaging lovers a chance to transcend their separate devils and find something a little like happiness.
Directions: The theater is approximately an hour away from Philadelphia in Newark, DE. Take Route 95 South to Delaware Exit IB, Route 896 North. Take exit north and proceed straight on West College Avenue past stadium and field house to central campus. Turn right at East Park Place, and left at first light, Academy Street. Proceed to driveway on left for parking. Hartshorn Hall is on the corner of East Park Place and Academy. It is handicapped accessible.
