Dorset Theatre Festival in Dorset, Vt.
Written by Jon Robin Baitz
Directed by Robert Egan
“The balance is so delicate, we cannot screw it up.”
To make the perfect concoction, mix three different Gills, then add one delicious Robins. Agitate with a Stahlmann. Stir well. Pour into a stunningly designed Swader, and blend with one Blitz and one Nichols. Allow an Egan to carefully blend all these ingredients, and you have an “Other Desert Cities” cocktail fit for King Jon Robin Baitz. That is what the masterminds in Dorset, Vt., have delivered for a three-week run at their deservedly famous Theatre Festival this weekend. The Gills are Michel Gill, Jayne Atkinson, and their offspring Jeremy Gill. The Robbins is the wonderful Laila Robins, and the agitator is Elizabeth Stahlmann. The setting has been designed by Christopher and Justin Swader, with costumes by Elivia Bovenzi Blitz, and the subtle lighting has been designed by Patricia M. Nichols. Robert Egan is the director of Jon Robin Baitz’s superb play.
This 2011 play originally starred Stockard Channing as Polly Wyeth, a former Hollywood dignitary and co-author of a series of hit comedy films with her sister Silda Grauman, played by Judith Light, who won a Tony Award for this role. In Dorset, Polly is played with a clearly artificial dignity by the very talented Laila Robins, who brings the character into a resonant place with her fascinating interpretation of the role. Silda is played by Jayne Atkinson, who can do no wrong as the recovering alcoholic sister. She gives the woman her own sense of dignity by allowing her to always be herself and never agitate with the phoniness she sees in Polly.
The exquisite Michel Gill plays Polly’s husband Lyman, a former action-film star who has moved into politics and is now retired. As his son, Trip Wyeth, a television producer, Gill and Atkinson’s son Jeremy Gill delivers a wonderful performance. He makes confusion look so rational that, even in his bare feet, he remains stable and in control of his emotions. His sister Brooke, who makes this Christmas Eve setting into an unrecognizable holiday of terror, is played beautifully by Elizabeth Stahlmann, who ultimately finishes the play with an epilogue that recounts the results of her holiday effort to skewer her parents with a memoir that turns out to be not quite right.
Baitz’s play, originally staged by his lover, Joe Mantello, has been directed here by Robert Egan, the producer/director who developed the play “Angels in America” by Tony Kushner and helped Arthur Miller develop his play “The American Clock.” He brings that expertise into the mix here, and with his cast, he has created a comedy that had me in tears for nearly 10 minutes in the second act. This is an emotional story about truth, secrets, and reality in the 1980s when drugs, cults, and political cruelty ran rampant in this country. As the Wyeth family relives that time for the benefit of their dead son, Henry, whom Brooke believes they have written off and forgotten, their home in Palm Springs, Calif., on Christmas Eve, turns into a morgue of mortality where hope springs eternally.
The Swader set is sensational. You will, as I did, wish you could live there. Blitz’s costumes perfectly define the characters who wear them. The beautifully subtle lighting by Patricia Nichols and the wonderful sound design by Karl Frederik Lundeberg complete the emotional picture of a family avoiding crisis while creating personal internal havoc.
If there is only one play you see this summer, this is the one to choose. It will let you laugh, cry, remember, and renew your belief in family and family’s emotional importance in our lives. The combination of performance, design, and direction just cannot be beaten by any theater in the region, and it is a large region, taking in Hartford, Albany, Springfield, and the entirety of the Berkshires. Dorset, Vt., the smallest location in that vast arena of the arts, has had a good season this summer, but this play outstrips everything else they have presented this year.
I am told that the show is nearly sold out, so do not wait to decide. Make your plans today and contact the theater immediately for available seats. This is one you will not regret spending time and money on. Dorset is only a 90-minute drive from Pittsfield, and the play is worth every dollar, every minute, every mile of the trip. It is only the second play I have seen this season that I would gladly pay to see again—if only I had the time.
“Other Desert Cities” plays at the Dorset Playhouse, 104 Cheney Road, Dorset, VT, through September 6. For information and tickets, visit Dorset Theatre Festival’s website or call (802) 867-2223, very soon.
