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The Ride Down Mt. Morgan |
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Author: Arthur Miller
Reviewer: Carolyn Albert for Theatre Reviews Limited |
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Arthur Miller has written a sexy play. Actually, he has written a play about sex in the way that an intellectual like Miller might write about sex, full of arguments and shy of using dirty words and phrases by quoting other writers (e.g. Isaac Bashevis Singer: the reason why a man left one woman for another is that he preferred the second woman's hole). Or he puns cleverly (We have an economic system that is just one enormous tit, which is why we should spell it SUCKcess) to divert our attention from the fact that A. Miller, an icon of American literature, is passionate about sex. Hoo-ha!
  
Written when Miller (now 85) was 75, his hero of choice is Lyman Felt, a bigamist in his late middle age. Played with sparkling energy (and a very good hairpiece) by Patrick Stewart, there is an undercurrent of defiance - defiance of time, of death, and of societal strictures that keep a guy from having a good time. In one scene, Stewart removes his shirt to reveal a body as tight and muscular as any youth. Age be damned, Miller proclaims through Felt. As the chill of imminent mortality approaches, Felt decides to face every fear about physical acts that have terrified him, like driving sports cars at high speeds.even down an icy slope during a storm. The more defiant he is, the more alive he feels.
In a drama that keeps viewers sharp and focused, Lyman Felt justifies his bigamy. He loves and appreciates his first wife, Theo (Frances Conroy is proud and dignified, yet vulnerably revealing her hurt pride), too much to hurt or leave her. While expanding his large insurance corporation to new headquarters in Elmira, New York, he meets Leah, a youthful entrepreneur, played winningly by Katy Selverstone, and is as attracted to her financial independence as to her body. When she conceives and plans to abort, Felt cannot lose her or the child (He is so sure it is a son that he has already named him Benjamin after his father), so he deceives both women, telling Leah he has asked for and received a divorce from Theo, and telling Theo that he must spend half of each month in Elmira.
The play opens as his double life is about to be revealed. Felt has driven his Porsche down an icy mountain during a snowstorm, even moving wooden barricades to do so, cracking up his car and some of his body (although under David Esbjornson's direction, all bandages and casts are suggested, rather than visible). The hospital's medical staff is personified in one nurse who functions as Felt's confidante (a solid Oni Faida Lampley, herself an award-winning playwright). She had gone through his papers and summoned his wife and grown daughter, Bessie (Shannon Burkett), from New York.
Onstage action may be Felt's nightmares and recollections or may really be occurring; interestingly, Miller shows that it doesn't matter which because the outcomes are the same. A mid-air pianist (Glen Pearson) playing old time tunes fits in just fine because if it's all a dream anyhow, we might as well have some background music.
Miller writes by the old Aristotelian rules. John C. Vennema is Tom, Felt's lawyer, a safe and credible receptor for confidences [In Millers "View From the Bridge," the lawyer is omniscient narrator.] Tom also is a "foil," providing contrast as a morally upright friend whose balding dome and budding belly show him going into conventional middle age without Felt's resistant defiance.
Other recurrent Miller themes break into the narrative. As in "Death of a Salesman," where both Biff and Happy keep letting Willie Loman down, Felt feels he has disappointed his late father. Willie kills himself for the insurance. Insurance is a form of immortality when, as Felt points out, a man can pay bills even after he dies. Felt used to write, becoming more of Miller's alter ego when he says that nobody lusts after immortality like a writer.
The play harbors structural weaknesses. Although compelling, the action lacks dramatic journey (some actors refer to this as an "arc.") Too much time is spent repeating the same arguments. Felt doesn't change so much as justify a choice he has made long before the curtain rises. The women never change or grow; from start to finish, they still harp on Felt's deception. Although Felt has one child with each wife, we do not see the quality of his relationship with either. We learn that both the onstage Bessie and offstage Ben adore their father, but with little to establish the depth of that love, we can't see how learning of Felt's deception shatters either. And we get very little from Felt about how devastated he feels at losing their adoration.
The show is interesting and worth seeing because it is by Miller. Performances are uniformly excellent, with Stewart and Conroy outstanding. A minimal set by John Arnone, unobtrusive costumes by Elizabeth Hope Clancy, and smooth lighting by Brian MacDevitt keep the focus squarely on Stewart - his life, his needs, his ego, his hungers, his passions. The play is male-centered. Lyman Felt is the Male-man, and Patrick Stewart delivers Arthur Miller's male.
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Produced by the Shubert Organization, Scott Rudin, Roger Berlind, Spring Serkin, and ABC, Inc. Written by Arthur Miller. Directed by David Esbjornson. Scenic Design by John Arnone. Costume Design by Elizabeth Hope Clancy. Lighting Design by Brian MacDevitt. Original Music & Sound by Dan Moses Schreier.
CAST: Patrick Stewart, Frances Conroy, Shannon Burkett, Oni Faida Lampley, Katy Selverstone, John C. Vennema.
Theater: Ambassador Theatre, 215 West 49th Street.
Schedule: Through July 23, 2000: Tuesday - Saturday at 8, Wednesday & Saturday at 2, Sunday at 3.
Tickets: $55-65 at Box Office or from Telecharge (212/239-6200) outside New York: 800/432-7250.
Audience: Adult.
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