"In the middle of life, we find ourselves alive. Disoriented, lost; but alive." This line, delivered by the narrator, opens the second act of the play, and succinctly sums up a lot of what the play is about thematically and where all the characters find themselves at the time of the action. Beautifully written by Craig Wright, The Pavilion, presented by Penfold Theatre Company finds Peter and Kari, who were voted cutest senior couple at the time of their high school graduation, at their twenty year reunion, where they are forced to confront their past and the culmination of the consequences of their life decisions, both big and small. Also known as their present lives.
Spoiler alert: when they were seventeen, Peter got Kari pregnant and then took off for college without so much as calling her to say goodbye. She had an abortion, stayed in the town where they grew up and married a golf pro named Hans, with whom she is bored and unhappy. Peter moved to the Twin Cities (the play is set in Minnesota, by the way) and became a psychologist whose own personal life, ironically, is a mess consisting of a string of romantic relationships that were doomed before they even began because he never got over Kari. From the action, it would seem that this reunion is the first time Peter and Kari have spoken in the last two decades and the first time either of them have faced the effect their situation has had on their lives.
The play begins with a monologue by the Narrator, played by Kim Adams, about time, the formation of the universe, and all the things which have led up to this moment. Peter (Zach Thompson) and Kari (Nancy Eyermann) are introduced, and the Narrator morphs into many different characters, by turns playing a friend of Peter's and then a friend of Kari's, as Kari tries to avoid having to talk to Peter. Eventually, they do talk to each other, in an explosive scene toward the end of act one in which Kari reveals what happened between them. Peter's arc takes a little longer to reach his peak, coming in a climactic scene in act two in which he desperately tries to restart the universe for a chance to go back to age seventeen and do the right thing by Kari, to correct his mistake. This is, of course, impossible, which makes Peter look pathetic, shouting at the top of his lungs trying to start over again. But it's appropriate for the character in that moment, and works within the world of the play. And with all of it out in the open, they can finally begin to heal. Kari realizes that she doesn't want to start over, because to do so would mean that she would lose all the moments in her life when she was truly happy. And Peter finally accepts things as they are. It's as if both of them have been wandering through life, lost, until this moment, and now they begin to find their way. Eyermann and Thompson's performances convey their characters' stories well, if a little over the top for my taste at times. For the most part, though, the characters are believable and genuine, and a pleasure to watch.
I haven't talked much about the Narrator, but Adams' performance definitely deserves some attention. She brought a great deal of comedy to the piece, and seamlessly switched from one character to the next and then back again. Each of her seventeen characters had his or her own voice and physical presence. No easy feat for an actor, and an impressive performance indeed.
The play left me feeling contemplative, perhaps because my own ten year high school reunion is right around the corner, and I have been in the same place as some of the characters in the play lately; looking back at what I have done and the choices I have made in the last ten years and reflecting on the difference between where I expected to be and where I am. Given the chance, would I do anything differently? Would the potential gain of changing something be worth losing what I have? How did I wind up in such a wildly different place than my seventeen-year-old self expected? I don't know, and I probably never will. I can only, like Peter and Kari, learn from the past and look forward. Try to change the things I'm unhappy with and hold onto the things and people in my life that I love.
I'll wrap up by saying that, if you have the chance, go see this play. It runs through May 13th at Hyde Park Theatre. Even if your high school reunion isn't happening this year, the stories it tells and the philosophies it presents will give you a lot to think about.
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