Theater Review—

Da Silva’s ‘Attracting Hummingbirds’ Is Good Entertainment

By Julie Stern

SHERMAN — Local playwright and cultural leader Benjamin DaSilva saw the premiere of his newest work, Attracting Hummingbirds, at Sherman Playhouse this past weekend. The play is a five character comedy-drama exploring the conflicts that exist between the generations, between the genders, and between liberal tree-huggers and hard-nosed Ayn Rand style conservatives.

The catalyst for all the interaction is one of those massive New England blizzards that cuts all power, closes roads and leaves thousands of people stranded in deep snow. Among them is Tom Parsons, a hip creative writing professor. In his rustic lakefront cabin equipped with a woodstove for heat, kerosene lanterns for light, a gas stove in the kitchen for making coffee, a chemical toilet, and a battery powered radio for making contact with the outside world, Tom seems perfectly positioned to wait out the storm in Thoreauvian solitude.

No sooner does Tom announce his intention to do just that, than a banging on the cabin door heralds the arrival of a neighboring family whose lack of survival skills and equipment have left them at the mercy of the storm: Arnold Harte, a supremely obnoxious businessman who has recently begun legal proceedings against Tom over Tom’s refusal to put in a septic system, his stubbornly cheerful wife, Madeline, and their sulky college student son, Jim.

Arnold is suffering from that most symbolically plutocratic malady- gout, and so can do little but sit with his foot up and complain, while his wife hovers over him with blankets and pillows, but he does manage to be rude and abusive to his host. And Tom is definitely a host, promising that he will share his meager supply of food and bedding until help comes.

The little group is further augmented when they hear cries for help from Vickie, a young airhead who has managed to become separated from the boy she picked up at a club, and is floundering in the snow in nothing but a sexy dress and patterned nylons.

Faced with the psychological intrusion on his privacy by guests he probably would not have chosen — compounded by Arnold’s loudmouthed bullying, Madeline’s perky self-effacement, Jim’s adolescent surliness, and Vickie’s pseudo-sophisticated narcissism — Tom graciously slips into his teacher-mode and invites them each to state a personal creed. He explains that when he does this in his script-writing class, the students begin to examine their own personal philosophy over the course of the semester, and by the end of the term, have come to discover what they really believe, and who they really want to be. (Guess where this plot is going?)

In the first play I ever reviewed, Francis Daley played a mountain climber stranded on a ledge up near the top of the Himalayan mountain K-2.

Now he is both the director, and the lead actor, in the part of Tom, and he is every bit as riveting and believable now as he was back in 1989. It’s more than just being typecast in the sensitive-outdoorsy role. Rather it is his ability to project an attractive and believable person. As the initially reluctant host, Mr Daley encourages the other four to express themselves, and then, like a good teacher, with non-judgmental guidance, he helps each one to feel more comfortable with who they are, even as they  discover how  they might want to be different.

Thus Madeline, played by Lauren M. Faure, can reconnect with the more honest and assertive roots that characterized her original career as a high school English teacher.

The dour Jim, portrayed by Nicholas Kier, is able to contemplate revealing to his mother at least, the homosexual orientation that he knows will be so unacceptable to his father, and Vickie (Kelly McQuail) will realize that her promiscuity and self-absorbtion are less a demonstration of her “freedom” than they are of insecurity.

And as for Arnold (Karl Theo), in a role made difficult by its relentlessly shrill fulminations, even he starts to remember that his mother, who prayed a lot, was  nicer person than he is, so perhaps that will be a beginning.

It’s always nice to see a local author find a stage for his work. Good for Sherman!

(Performances continue for two more weekends, on Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3, until October 1.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $13 for students and seniors.

Call 860-354-3622 for additional reservations or directions to Sherman Playhouse.)