Ross Zentner
Gavin Lawrence (left) and Olivia Dawson in the Forward Theater production "The Mytilenean Debate."
When you walk into the Playhouse at the Overture Center for the Arts to see Forward Theater Company’s new production, The Mytilenean Debate, the debris from 9/11 is everywhere. Mundane items like coffee cups, jewelry, messenger bags and papers lie in piles of rubble around the edges of the stage. One concrete wall stubbornly remains standing at the back of the playing space, while others have seemingly crumbled to dust. Candles flicker in makeshift memorials for lives lost. A chandelier of two long, narrow, rectangle lights hangs above the action, artfully suggesting the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center that are no more.
This complex, affecting set, designed by Keith Pitts, immediately brings audience members back to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. In addition to providing context for the setting of the play — just a few months after the deadly attack — it encapsulates a central theme of the play: there are some moments when the decisions we make can be revisited. There are times when we get second chances, and opportunities to change our minds. And then there are some decisions that alter our lives — and the lives of those around us — irrevocably.
Quan Barry’s 90-minute, conversation-heavy play focuses on two couples facing big decisions during this time of heightened emotions, national mourning, vulnerability, reflection and reevaluation of life choices. Latimer and Nina are confronted with an unexpected pregnancy at a time in their lives when they are thinking more about grandchildren, and Latimer’s daughter Mary is considering adoption with her jazz musician husband, Charles, who really isn’t ready for a family. In the midst of these big dilemmas, other questions lurk: what qualifies you as family — genetics or love? How does race affect societal expectations of each character, and how does it influence the relationships between them? Can the pain from past decisions ever be overcome?
Directed at a brisk pace by UW-Madison Theatre and Drama professor Mark H., The Mytilenean Debate is a very long exploration of “Yes or no? Will they or won’t they?” where some characters get what they want at a cost, and some change their minds and change them back again.
By far the most interesting and knowable character in the play is Latimer, infused with humor, generosity and humanity by Gavin Lawrence. A successful heart surgeon in Manhattan, Latimer has survived a stark, punishing upbringing in the South, a tour in Vietnam, and the loss of his wife. Now in his 60s, he splits his time between work, a relationship with TV producer Nina, who is 15 years his junior (a no-nonsense Olivia Dawson) and visiting his adult daughter Mary (Samra Teferra) as she struggles with her marriage, her doctoral dissertation and her longing for a baby. In addition to his current dilemma, of whether to be a father to a special needs child, Latimer is dealing with violent nightmares; difficult moments from his past that he has pushed into his subconscious. In spite of all this, and a health scare of his own, Latimer brings warmth to every scene. Lawrence has drawn him with an easy, laid-back narrative style and a playfulness that cuts through some of the heavy subject matter. We willingly follow whenever he starts telling stories, even if they feel tangential to the plot.
As Nina, Olivia Dawson exudes confidence and strength throughout the play, but as the audience learns towards the end, sometimes it is genuine and other times it is a mask she uses to hide her insecurities. On the job, at her therapist’s office, or having coffee with Mary, Nina is an imposing figure. She is unequivocal, matter-of-fact, and firm in her beliefs. When Nina’s pregnancy upends her assumptions about her future, she is still thoughtful and rational, but she is also deeply conflicted. This vulnerability is a whole new side of her character that Dawson deftly explores.
The younger couple, Mary and Charles, are significantly less interesting because both characters are woefully underwritten. Their central conflict, about whether to adopt a baby or not, pales in comparison to the question of how these two people ended up married in the first place. Samra Teferra and Marcus Truschinski portray the mismatched pair, who each seem either oblivious or hostile to the other’s goals, even before the question of expanding the family comes up. As Charles, Truschinski gets more opportunities to fill in the blanks for his character, making a connection with the audience about his fading dreams of becoming a successful jazz musician and his inability to live up to others’ expectations. But there are still too many basic questions about the couple that are glossed over for the audience to really invest in the relationship.
That is one of the puzzle pieces that doesn’t quite fit together in this production. Others include director Mark H.’s staging virtually every discussion between the characters in a compact square center stage, when he had a much larger space to play with; and the overwhelming visuals of 9/11 juxtaposed with little direct discussion of the event by the characters. These missing pieces ultimately mean that many of the extensive conversations in The Mytilenean Debate resonate more on a theoretical level than an emotional one.
But kudos go to Quan Barry for partnering with Forward Theater as the company’s first writer-in-residence. A celebrated and successful scholar and writer who has made a name for herself in both prose and poetry, she has challenged herself as an artist by delving into a very different form of storytelling. I look forward to more of Barry’s works for the theater in the future.
The play will run through March 13.
