By Harry Haun
03 Feb 2006
 |
 |
| David Lindsay-Abaire; Cynthia Nixon; Byron Jennings; Donald Magulies; Jayne Houdyshell; Kurt Vonnegut; Eric Bogosian; Lynne Meadow; Daniel Sullivan; Mary Catherine Garrison; John Slattery. |
|
| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
At the first preview of Rabbit Hole, which officially opened for business at The Biltmore Feb. 2, Sheila MacRae settled into a seat fourth row center and braced herself for the loopy lunacy that David Lindsay-Abaire has historically, often hysterically, dispensed for Manhattan Theatre Club (Fuddy Meers, Wonder of the World and Kimberly Akimbo).
To be sure, there were some welcoming, reassuring laughs at the outset, but gradually a heavy emotional undertow took hold, and MacRae found herself reconfronting a tragedy she lived through five years ago when her daughter Meredith died. The play, which she did make through (albeit, from the last row, where much of the audience wept with her), addresses the universal subject of the hole in the heart that is left by a death in the family.
“One of the nice things about the play,” says Cynthia Nixon, who stars as a young woman coping with the traffic death of her four-year-old son, “is that it deals with this incredibly weighty painful topic, but it is not solemn in any way. I think people dealing with a huge amount of pain are never solemn. They’re very quixotic. They keep changing all the time. Their emotions constantly switch from angry to happy to sad to whatever.”
Given the circumstances, Tyne Daly lightens the load considerably as Nixon’s blunt, brass-tacks mom who herself has had to bury her son (in this case, a 30-year-old druggie suicide)--and Daly goes after her role with the Swiss-watch-timing of a Nancy Walker.
“Actually,” clarifies Daly, “the person that I think of when I do this part is Shirley Booth. I was a great fan of hers, and so was my mother. She used to say, ‘Shirley could do anything--laugh, cry, laugh, cry, laugh, laugh, cry.’ The character here is very funny, and, when called upon to say something straight, she gives it her best shot and tries to tell the truth. So that’s a great opportunity. It’s a true ensemble piece. In ensemble pieces, especially in ensemble pieces where there’s no villain, it’s lovely to get to know each of these people--and, because David Lindsay-Abaire is such a wonderful writer, he allows the audience to get to know each a bit. I’m in love with my play, and that’s such a treat.”
Making the trek across the road: A Touch of the Poet’s Byron Jennings; wife Carolyn McCormick and another recent graduate of the Pinter double-bill, Kate Blumberg; Polly Draper, Talia Balsam (Mrs. John Slattery), Donald Margulies (who’s “sorta cooking a new play and working on a couple of screen projects, one of which is very exciting”), Lisa Kron and Jayne Houdyshell (exactly one week away from Well rehearsals), Joan Rivers, Kurt Vonnegut, Eric Bogosian (who’s scripting an as-yet-untitled HBO series about the probation department that will star Nixon), and Kevin Geer.
Lynne Meadows and Barry Grove, MTC’s top honchos, saluted the talent involved in putting on the show--with particular praise for their typically astonishing set designer, John Lee Beatty, who artfully fashioned an archetype American home with revolving rooms on the principal of the Rubik’s Cube. Then, as is their custom, they turned over the mike to the evening’s true auteur, Lindsay-Abaire, who in turn thanked them (“It’s a rare gift that a playwright has a home so consistently”) and did a deep bow in the direction of the play’s director, Daniel Sullivan (“I’ve never had to say less in a rehearsal room”).
Why, one has to ask Lindsay-Abairie, this extreme change in mood, switching his comedy mask for his tragedy one for his Broadway debut? He had a good answer:
“I have a five-year-old son who was three when I started writing this. I was a student at Juilliard, and one of my teachers, Marsha Norman, said to us once, ‘If you want to write a good play, write about the thing that frightens you the most.’ I’d heard a couple of really awful stories about children dying suddenly, and, as a new parent, I could not think about what it was like for those families. And I thought, ‘Well, that’s what she’s talking about. That’s the thing that frightens me the most.’ And that’s how this play came about.” Continued...
| View article on single page | Previous Page 1 | 2 Next Page |
