63. Review of THE WAYSIDE INN (September 10, 2014)

64. THE WAYSIDE MOTOR INN
 

A.R. Gurney readily admits that this 1977 play, now being revived at the Signature Theatre at Pershing Square, was written under the influence of British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, as in his play HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES, which uses the same set to show two stories at the same time. Writing on his website, at argurney.com, he says: “The assumption I make in THE WAYSIDE MOTOR INN is that since all the rooms in a medium-priced American motel are virtually the same, why not have several different plots work themselves out simultaneously within one single motel room standing for many others. If this sounds needlessly complicated, I tried to make the evening comprehensible by making the different stories occurring in this room fairly simple and straightforward.”

From left: Will Pullen, Jon DeVries, Quincy Dunn-Baker. Photo: Joan Marcus.

Mr. Gurney hoped to offer an incisive examination of America, with the motel representing “a generalizing image of transitory American life.” As the play was rehearsed, however, he realized how difficult the task he’d set for himself was, since having so many actors inhabiting the same space made it difficult for them to find the logic in the pauses required as one scene’s dialogue and action collided with another’s. He observed that the audience was being asked to watch as he, a juggler with five plots flying about, kept them all in the air, which ran the risk of losing their interest. In his eyes, the play had failed because it had been “drowned” in its conceptual framework.

From left: Rebecca Henderson, Will Pullen, Quincy Dunn-Baker. Photo: Joan Marcus.

Much of what he says is true, and it’s difficult while watching the play not to be conscious of the trickery involved as characters avoid sitting or standing in the same place or in the way of others, or to be speaking when others are doing so. You wonder if the pauses in one conversation, created to allow another to proceed, are justified, or if you’re being asked to fight a losing battle with suspending your disbelief as the play proceeds. Thus the juggling act does sometimes intrude on the believability of the characters and situations; they are, after all, basically created to satisfy a dramaturgical concept rather than the organic working out of their own needs.

Still, the play, especially in this finely calibrated production directed by Lila Neugeberger, does hold your interest, and you’re able to appreciate Mr. Gurney’s cleverness while also being invested in the play’s inner life (or lives). As far as those lives are concerned, the playwright has kept things simple, making each plot line essentially familiar and unprovocative; this detracts from the power of any one set of characters’ individual drama while contributing to the overall effect of five separate stories intersecting within the same locale, with only the slightest overlap on several occasions.

Within the room at the Wayside Inn (a name taken from a famous poem, we’re told), somewhere near Boston, we meet Frank (Jon DeVries) and Jessie (Lizbeth Mackay), a couple in their 60s, who’ve come to visit their nearby daughter and see her new baby; Ray (Quincy Dunn-Baker), a slick sales rep in a three-piece suit, who’s there on business; the pot smoking Phil (David McElwee) and Sally (Ismenia Mendes), college students who’ve come for their first night of sex together; Vince (Mark Kudisch), a middle-aged businessman, and his teenage son, Mark (Will Pullen), present because Mark is scheduled for an interview for Harvard; Andy (Kelly AuCoin), a young doctor, and Ruth (Rebecca Henderson), who are going through a painful divorce after he chose to move elsewhere for career purposes; and Sharon (Jenn Lyon), a pretty chambermaid and onetime hippie on whom Ray quickly puts the moves. 

Jenn Lyon, Quincy Dunn-Baker. Photo: Joan Marcus.

The stories of this motley, yet familiar, crew (all of whom are white and without any ethnic markers) are rife with anxiety, loneliness, alienation, and problems of communication. There are incidental comic moments, but, in essence, these are five slices of life, mildly poignant and instantly identifiable, carefully edited to keep out excessive dramatic encumbrances that might complicate Mr. Gurney’s structural layout. The acting is generally low-key and naturalistic, with just as much dramatic tension as needed to sustain interest.

For example, Frank worries about his heart, which distracts him from the reason for his visit, and creates subdued friction with his wife, who can’t wait to hold her grandchild; Frank, who has to reassure his wife on the phone about his fidelity, immediately begins using his wiles to find a local bed partner, and then to seduce the interested but also somewhat reluctant Sharon; Vince, a nightmare of paternal smothering, conflicts with Mark’s wish to avoid Harvard in favor of a year off to work on cars; Ruth and Andy clash when he tries to gain possession of their family albums; and Sally, uncomfortable with Phil’s interest in a one-nighter he intends as an experiment to test their compatibility, isn’t quite as ready to jump into the sack as he might wish.

The two-act play enjoys a uniformly capable ensemble in a work that doesn’t make any specific character more important than any other. The acting is nicely modulated, emotionally powerful when needed, but always essentially subdued as part of the overall scheme of things. Andrew Lieberman’s large motel room set (at least the fourth motel setting in the past two years), with its two double beds ($32 a night!), sliding door to a balcony, glen plaid wallpaper, and pushbutton TV, resembles what anyone who’s ever been in a motel has seen, and the late 1970s costumes of Kaye Voyce, the lighting of Tyler Micoleau, and the sound design of Stowe Nelson all contribute to the period ambience.

It’s fun to see a play set in the not-too-distant past without a cellphone or computer in sight, and to try to pin the approximate year by what the designers and director provide. It’s also nice to see a play even the playwright was ready to dismiss prove itself stageworthy; its problems may remain but, given the dearth of outstanding playwriting these days, even lesser Gurney is definitely worth a visit.