GARAGE THEATRE REVIEW For the Suburbanite Writers telling stories about characters telling stories: stories that may not be real, less factual than fictional, evasive, ambiguous, resistant, but ultimately, stories that crash into the pure flame of truth. In this case the writers are playwrights; a sharp, merciless and elusive Englishmen, and a warm, affable and somewhat doleful Irishman. The stories and writers are, “Ashes to Ashes” by Harold Pinter and “Afterplay” by Brian Friel. These two, quite different, but equally brilliant plays, are making their New Jersey debuts, in compelling productions, at Bergen County’s only professional theatre, The Garage Theatre Group in Teaneck. “Ashes to Ashes” is quintessential Pinter, sparse, mysterious and gripping. It opens with the short wail of a police siren followed by a lengthy silence and stillness. A middle-aged man and woman are in a rather formal, somewhat stuffy, sitting room. They seem to be fairly well off. They talk, or more precisely, he questions, she answers. We can feel they have a strong relationship. We sense that what each says to the other is vital. We are attentive, gripped by who they are and what they are saying, but, because this is Pinter, we don’t really know who they are or the meaning of what they’re saying. Pinter doesn’t give us the facts, he gives us a “Painteresque” truth. Is “Ashes to Ashes” the story of a husband and wife trying to come to terms with an intense complex relationship? Or are we witnessing the mind games of sado-masochistic lovers in perverse sexual fore play? Could this be a psychoanalytical session and the man an analyst trying to break through a patient’s denial about the death of her child? Is the man a writer like Harold Pinter and the woman his muse, a personification of his creative imagination that he questions, prods and argues with, in search of the material for a play? In the woman’s stories there are images that suggest the Holocaust and packed trains of Jews being transported to concentration camps. So could we be in the civilian home of a Nazi 0fficer at one of those camps and might the woman be his prisoner/mistress? A successful production of a Pinter play doesn’t give us one answer to the questions. A good production keeps open all the possibilities of the real story, while riveting the audience to the truth of what is happening from moment-to-moment on stage. To make Pinter work, you need a thoughtful, talented director and two high quality actors. In director, Frank Licato and the cast of Michael Bias and Elizabeth Mozer, this Garage Theatre Group production has both in spades. Licato keeps the staging spare and concise and doesn’t “busy” it up with extraneous stage movements. He skillfully guides his actors through subtle, powerful, non-histrionic performances. Michael Bias is a quietly commanding, with a hint of menace, as the man. Elizabeth Mozer is a wraith-like figure, seemingly drained of emotion but intensively driven to create a life and identity from…what? The ashes of the past? Whose past? Brian Friel’s play is another cup of tea entirely; a dark Russian brew with a light touch of Irish sweetness. In the early years of the twentieth century, Sonya an attractive middle-aged woman sits alone at a table in an inexpensive Moscow restaurant. Andrey, a violinist, she had met the night before at this same restaurant, enters. She invites him to sit with her. As these strangers chat it becomes clear that they are not strangers to us. Andrey is the brother of Anton Chekov’s “Three Sisters” and Sonya is the niece from his “Uncle Vanya”. It is twenty years since those two masterpieces were first performed so twenty years have passed in the lives of these two memorable characters. In casual friendly conversation they share stories from their lives. They grow closer. And as they grow closer and the relationship and its possibilities become more important to them, the stories become less charming and buoyant. They begin to tell the sad, painful stories that are their lives. They begin to tell each other the truth. It soon becomes clear that this chance encounter in a Moscow restaurant has become that extraordinary moment when a choice you make can change your life forever. Of course, this being an Irish variation on Russian plays, the possibility of a happy ending is less than promising. Frank Licato’s direction in this production is again assured, spare, clear
and clean. Under his guidance the actors are meticulously truthful in bringing
to life on stage two very vulnerable, very real human beings. One of the special
pleasures in a double bill like this is seeing talented actors take on radically
different roles and Bias and Mozer do it brilliantly in this production. The The Garage Theatre Group production of “Ashes to Ashes” and “Afterplay” runs through November 16th at The Becton Theatre on the campus of Farleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck. Call 201-569-7710 for tickets and information or contact them at www.garagetheatre.org
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