Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Although set in the future, Amy Berryman’s anxiety-ridden WALDEN asks tough existential questions for the moment

• By drediman
• August 29, 2021
• No Comments

I recently had the opportunity to stream TheaterWorks Hartford’s environmental staging of Amy Berryman’s Walden, which recently wrapped up performances. Luckily, the outdoor production was captured on film and has been made available for on-demand viewing, giving those unable to trek up to Connecticut an opportunity to experience this new, thought-provoking play. Although the work takes place in a future during which today’s worrying warning signs have blossomed into full-blown calamities (e.g., nonstop climate-related disasters, an uncontrollable refugee crisis, etc.), the play itself is specifically set in a remote, self-sustaining cabin and farm where a couple – Stella and Bryan – has retreated to and made a quiet, secluded life for themselves as far away as possible from the world’s overwhelming troubles. Enter Cassie, Stella’s philosophically-opposed twin sister, and fireworks ensue.

The play’s fundamental dramatic structure is classic. Indeed, the interloper scenario has long been used to create dramatic tension and forward momentum in theater. Here, it’s used to jump start Ms. Berryman’s tough central debate over the importance of one’s duty to society versus prioritizing self-love and mental health, which is only magnified by the state of emergency that the human race has found itself in. So when Cassie – an astronaut who’s been chosen to spearhead the colonization of Mars – arrives on the scene to convince Stella (who was once also an elite astronaut and NASA engineer) to join her, both find themselves having to choose, excruciatingly, between their sisterhood and their respective life’s mission. Ms. Berryman has also made sure that the uncomfortable anxiety of living (again especially heightened given the play’s cataclysmic setting) permeates each scene, an unsettling mood that’s been a major component of recent important plays like Will Arbery’s superb Heroes of the Fourth Turning and Stephen Karam’s Pulitzer and Tony winning The Humans.

As for director Mei Ann Teo’s immersive, exquisitely detailed production (which was staged in and around a specially-built rustic cabin along the Connecticut River), it looked intriguing, and I wish I could have experienced it in person to take in its full sensory impact. Thankfully, Ms. Teo’s inspired work has been captured on film with great sensitivity and clarity. Lastly, I found it refreshing that actors of color were able to fill the play’s three roles, and they did not disappoint, giving performances that felt lived in and authentic. That’s why, despite the play’s speculative musings, I found myself viscerally drawn to the in-the-moment charge of their interactions. Particularly magnetic were Diana Oh and Jeena Yi’s performances as the sisters Stella and Cassie, whose relationship is the foundation on which the play is built. As the “third wheel” Bryan, Gabriel Brown was also excellent in a mostly thankless role.

RECOMMENDED

WALDEN
Regional theater, Play / On-demand
TheaterWorks Hartford
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
On-demand through August 29