Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The ageless Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse return to Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE

• By drediman
• May 15, 2022
• No Comments

This past week at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, I caught Manhattan Theatre Club’s Broadway revival of Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive starring the ageless and ever-distinctive Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse. I find it somewhat surprising that this production of the play – which bagged the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama – marks its Main Stem debut (although I missed the original 1997 production at the Vineyard Theatre, I did catch Second Stage’s 2012 Off-Broadway revival starring Elizabeth Reaser and Norbert Leo Butz). Set in 1960s Maryland, the play tells the unsettling story of the intermittent romantic relationship between an underage girl (Li’l Bit) and her middle-aged uncle (Peck).

Part love story, part story about sexual abuse, Ms. Vogel’s compact one-act play – which elegantly jumps back and forth in time – strictly operates in shades of grey, rigorously staying away from black and white storytelling. Indeed, the playwright takes the relationship between Li’l Bit and Peck at face value, neither totally condemning nor celebrating it. Although the relationship was always destined to be stunted, it’s nonetheless unnerving to witness Peck, a seemingly decent but deeply conflicted and flawed man, nurture the fire with his niece, often times in subtly (unconsciously?) manipulative but never flagrant ways. The play stealthily sneaks up on you, and one leaves the theater devastated by the quiet tragedy that has transpired.

Returning to the piece 25 years onwards with their definitive portrayals of Li’l bit and Peck are the originators of the roles, Ms. Parker and Mr. Morse. In short, their performances are every bit as astonishing as people have touted. They bring disarming transparency and a lived-in quality to their performances that vividly animate their characters’ inner lives, despite the economy of Ms. Vogel’s writing. Suffice to say, their chemistry is as magnetic as it is disturbing. Joining Parker and Morse as the play’s “Greek Chorus” are the wonderful Johanna Day, Alyssa May Gold, and Chris Myers, who play a skillfully play a slew of characters. The play’s original director Mark Brokaw also returns to the piece, giving it an incandescent inner glow that boldly illuminates the now-classic play.

HIGHY RECOMMENDED

HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE
Broadway, Play
Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Through June 12