Matthew Anderson and Whitney Ellis (Photo by Diana Kauffman)
Reviewed by G. Bruce Smith
The Garage Theatre
Through Sept. 26
Rick Napoli and Whitney Ellis (Photo by Diana Kauffman)
Elizabeth Egloff’s The Swan is often described as weird. Indeed, in his opening night curtain speech, director Rory Cowan used that very word to characterize the piece. Unfortunately, the playwright falls short of turning something bizarre into something interesting or engaging.
The plot is simple. Dora (Whitney Ellis) is a thrice-married Nebraska nurse who appears to be in love with married man Kevin (Matthew Anderson). But when a swan crashes through her window and turns into a man, later named Bill (Nick Napoli), it sets up a strange love triangle that comes to a resolution at the end.
Presumably Egloff has attempted to write an absurdist play in the vein of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano and other masterpieces. It might seem unfair to compare The Swan (which Egloff wrote as a Yale student) to these classics, but an absurdist play that doesn’t hit the mark becomes tedious.
Where nothing seems to happen in Waiting for Godot, so much happens through the use of spare dialogue, silences and pauses. Ultimately, we feel for Vladimir and Estragon because beneath all that waiting and seemingly pointless conversation is an exploration of human existence.
Egloff’s dialogue, like Godot’s, is frequently repetitive and circular and sometimes nonsensical. But it’s not lean; it doesn’t have the rhythm necessary to be engaging or to make us feel much at all for the three characters.
On top of that, The Swan is divided into many scenes, which breaks up the action and thus the effectiveness of the dialogue.
Cowan’s direction seems, at times, to exacerbate the tedium because the pacing in places seems slow. Where he delivers is in guiding the cast members to mostly solid performances. Napoli has a strong stage presence as Bill and conveys with skill the transition from hostile swan to a man in love with Dora. Anderson as Kevin successfully portrays a bumbling guy who thinks Dora is the bees’ knees. Ellis brings to life a woman who is a wounded bird and who slowly loses a grip on reality. But she also makes an odd choice in speaking in what sounds very much like a Minnesota accent, though her character is from Nebraska.
Probably the most interesting part of the production is the sound design (credited to Matari 2600). It contains many sound cues — ranging from a truck firing up to a dog barking — and an eclectic mix of musical selections that nicely complement the action.
Garage Theatre, 251 E 7th St., Long Beach. Thru Sept. 26. thegaragetheatre.org. Runtime Two hours, including intermission.
