A Special Story, Theater Barn’s ‘Shadow Box’ Is Also Very Done Well

By Julie Stern

RIDGEFIELD — Some special is going on in Ridgefield at the Theater Barn, where, with a top notch cast who were given enough rehearsal time to get it right, director Marc Cameron is staging a production of Michael Cristofer’s The Shadow Box. This is definitely one to go see.

Thirty years ago, when Cristofer’s play premiered and won both the Tony and Pulitzer prizes, the hospice movement was something few Americans knew much about, unless they had friends in England. Terminally ill patients were written off as unsavable, and hence left to languish in the back wards of hospitals until they finally freed up their beds for more promising cases.

Thus The Shadow Box was introducing an idealistic new concept in its portrayal of a California Hospice, designed to meet the physical and emotional needs of both the patient and his family. The setting is a community of rustically charming individual cottages, where each patient can live out his final weeks in the company of the people who love him, while professional staff are available to provide counseling, medical support, and palliative medication.

The play builds up the stories of the inhabitants of three of these cottages, as presented in David Craner and Laurie Andersons’ lovingly crafted set. It concentrates not on their deaths, but on their lives, revealing character through their interactions with the significant others who stay with them, and through of “interviews” with a pair of offstage overseers.

In Cottage One, Dennis McGrath is Joe, a blue collar guy from Jersey, who adores his teenage kid Steven, and has to struggle not only with his cancer, but with his wife, Maggie’s, reaction to his illness, a denial so strong that she refuses to let the boy know that his father is not going to get better.

In Cottage Two, Michael A. Pizzi is Brian, a clever, voluble, wisecracking intellectual who tries to mask his fear of death with words — he seems to have written 18 books since he was first diagnosed — while his moody lover, Mark, seethes with jealous hostility at the reappearance of Brian’s ex-wife, the flamboyant Beverely.

In Cottage Three,  Laurie Brearley is Felicity, an indomitable farm woman who despite the ravages of multiple conditions that have left her blind and wheelchair bound, can still sing a bawdy song, mainly to annoy her patient, long-suffering daughter, Agnes.

As the focus alternates from one group to another, we see these people becoming able to communicate, their memories of the past, their fears of the future, and the joys and values that make their lives meaningful, even in the shadow of death. The play is filled with unexpected humor as well as poignant moments. The acting is uniformly superb, including M.J. Hartell and Max Singer’s performances as Joe’s wife and son, Ryan Katzer and Elise P. Godfrey as the two people Brian loves, and Stacey A Mesler as Felicity’s daughter, who keeps her mother’s hopes up, perhaps for too long, by writing make-believe letters that promise a visit from her long lost sister.

The pair of unseen interviewers add to the “message” of the play, not by editorializing, but by asking the important questions that not only allow the protagonists a chance to express their feelings, but provoke the audience into thoughtful self examination as well. It is a useful and effective device, and this is a fine play, beautifully executed.

(The Shadow Box will continue at Ridgefield Theater Barn, 37 Halpin Lane, on Friday and Saturday evenings until October 8. There is also a Sunday afternoon matinee on September 25.

Tickets are $18 for adults, or $15 for students and seniors. Call 203-431-9850 for reservations and additional information.

Doors open one hour prior to showtime, seating is cabaret-style, and audiences are welcome to bring in food and beverages.)