Buried Child
Reviewed by Terry Morgan
A Noise Within Theatre Company
Through November 23
Watching A Noise Within’s new production of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, I was struck by how closely the first act resembles Pinter’s The Homecoming. A man who’s been away from his family for some time returns, accompanied by a woman whom he brings into a group of strange, violent men. But whereas in The Homecoming this meeting changes the future of the family, in Buried Child its impact has to do with digging up the past. Bolstered by several strong performances, this revival does do justice to Shepard’s play, but a couple of missteps keep the production from reaching its full potential.
In a house in rural Illinois, elderly Dodge (Geoff Elliott) sits on a couch nursing a bottle of whiskey in between coughing fits. His wife, Halie (Deborah Strang), chatters incessantly from upstairs as he tries to ignore her. Eldest adult son Tilden (Michael Manuel), returned home broken after some undefined “trouble in New Mexico,” keeps bringing produce in from the usually barren backyard. Middle son Bradley (Frederick Stuart), who appears later, lost a leg in a chainsaw accident. Into this weirdness arrives Tilden’s son, Vince (Zack Kenney), with his girlfriend Shelly (Angela Gulner) in tow, looking to enjoy a family reunion but finding instead a shattered group of people who don’t even remember him.
Elliott is a reliably strong actor, but while he does good work, he seems somewhat miscast as Dodge. If there’s one person responsible for this family’s destruction, it’s Dodge, and even if he’s been laid low by old age, the shadow of the man he was should still be present. Elliott is adept at finding all the dark humor in the role, but his interpretation lacks menace, which unfortunately robs the production of some of its power. Strang, whose part is more difficult — she’s offstage for much of her dialogue — is actually more successful at portraying Halie who, a bit deranged, monologues tirelessly (almost like a Beckett stream-of-consciousness) and then abruptly verbally attacks whomever attracts her ire.
Gulner is excellent as the resilient Shelly, credible both in her alarm at the craziness around her and her kindness to Tilden. Manuel is solid as the damaged Tilden, who sells the notion of the backyard’s endless fecundity and the weird symbolism that entails. Stuart has a potent entrance scene at the end of Act One and is equally good at displaying the character’s weakness in Act Two. Kenney’s performance as Vince works when he’s thrown into confusion early on, but a pivotal drunk scene towards the end might benefit from some restraint.
Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott gets high-quality performances from her cast, and if she chooses to focus more on the comedic aspects of the play more than the dramatic, it’s a valid choice and the production still succeeds. Angela Balogh Calin’s costumes aren’t showy but they’re appropriate to the various characters; scenic designer Sibyl Wickersheimer’s living room/porch , however, seems bland and undetailed.
Although slightly dated, the play — a clear forerunner to August: Osage County — still retains its primal power, wherein the sins of the father, secrets long buried, find their inexorable path into the light.
A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena; in rep, call for schedule; through Nov. 23. www.anoisewithin.org. Running time: approximately one hour and 55 minutes, with one intermission.
