J Miner Photography
a group of people dressed for winter in a confrontational pose.
The strong cast plays the edgy comedy well.
Wintertime is a tangled romantic comedy that asks big questions amid humorous interludes, but never finds satisfying answers. Written by Charles Mee, directed by Matt Korda, and performed by Madison Public Theatre (formerly Strollers), Wintertime plays at the Bartell Theatre through Feb. 22.
The play opens as young lovers Jonathan (Teana Nightoak) and Ariel (Amelie Rosenhagen) escape to Jonathan’s family summer home between Christmas and New Year’s. Snowy birch trees against a dark winter sky evoke an unnamed northern locale, and a haunting aria fills the air as they enter. Ariel excitedly examines the dusty furnishings, and she and Jonathan slow dance, staring into each other’s eyes.
The romantic moment is shattered when Jonathan’s mother Maria (Meaghan Heires), emerges from the bedroom wearing nothing but a negligee. She’s there with her lover Francois (Jack Garton). To make matters more awkward, Jonathan’s father Frank (Michael Myers) and his lover Edmond (Erich Evered) arrive moments later, also hoping for a secluded tryst. Soon, it becomes clear that Maria and Frank’s open marriage isn’t working for anyone, and tensions rise.
Sound messy? That’s a feature, not a bug. Mee writes on his website of his approach to playwriting, “I like plays that are not too neat, too finished, too presentable. My plays are broken, jagged, filled with sharp edges, filled with things that take sudden turns, careen into each other, smash up, veer off in sickening turns. That feels good to me. It feels like my life. It feels like the world.”
Just like life, things don’t go as planned. Neighbor couple Bertha (Paula Pachciarz) and Hilda (Molly Maslin) drop by and add their own romantic troubles to the group. Jaqueline (Carol Robinson), a doctor who has a romantic history with one of the characters, adds more fuel to the fire. A delivery man named Bob (William Buchanan) arrives to deliver a composter no one has ordered.
While there, he muses on Greek plays and the meaning of love. “What eros means is a desire for something that is missing. And, once it is no longer missing, you no longer have the desire,” he remarks. “You mean a person can't love another person?” Maria asks. “Can’t keep loving another person,” Bob replies ominously.
There are plenty of laughs mixed in with the existential angst, and Garton is responsible for many of them, shining as the lovably libidinous and insecure Francois. The rest of the cast is strong and delivers some wonderful moments of humor and pathos. But the question of whether romantic desire can ever lead to lasting happiness is the sharp edge the play keeps smashing into. By the end of Act I, seductions are attempted, jealousy flares, dishes are thrown, and trust is shattered. Pushed to her breaking point, Maria runs out into the cold and the curtain closes on chaos.
I hoped the second act would deliver some internal growth for the characters. I was getting weary of their Sisyphean cycles of attraction and rejection. The act begins with a dramatic turn of events and an absurdist interlude which seems as if they will be the catalyst for insight. But soon enough, the characters devolve into their old patterns of jealousy and blame.
The play ends with a scene that closely mirrors the beginning. Earlier in the play, Frank declares, “The secret to life is to be brave enough to trust another human being.” And yet, it’s not clear that any of the characters make that leap. Can romantic love lead to anything but suffering? Are humans capable of change? Mee’s play seems to say no.
I left wanting more evolution and insight for the characters than Mee’s script provides. Although the actors gave everything to their roles, the emotional arc of the writing did them a disservice. Wintertime is billed as a comedy, but I couldn’t help feeling as if I had watched a tragedy instead.
