I’d give anything for an evening with Virginia Woolf. I’m not so sure about making that same commitment to her sister Vanessa Bell – at least not as Vanessa is portrayed by Hollis McCarthy in the current Grove Theatre Center production of “Eternal Equinox” at 59E59 in Manhattan.
Ms. McCarthy’s Vanessa is the epitome of the emotional tyrant: she bullies her Bloomsbury buddy Duncan Grant (who though apparently gay fathers their daughter) into maintaining his commitment to her and her artistic craft. Not only has she slept with him but she has slept with his love interest George Mallory who stops by for a visit to convince Duncan to accompany him on his next Everest expedition.
This uber-talented cast cannot seem to make Joyce Hokin Sachs’s script work. Of the lot, Michael Gabriel Goodfriend (Duncan) is the most compelling with Christian Pedersen (George) and Vanessa Bell doing their best with what they are given. It is difficult to know precisely why. Why could an audience interface with the personae of three intrinsically significant historical characters and honestly not care about any of them? We do not care whether Duncan stays with Vanessa or leaves her. In fact, we hope he rings up young “country stock” Hodges for another romp in the country. Nor do we care whether George returns from Everest in one piece. We simply do not care. But we do wonder what Virginia might be doing.
It is not difficult to traverse “Eternal Equinox’s” themes of abandonment, love lost, emotional tyranny, psychological projection, and emotional and spiritual regret. What is difficult is to understand why these talented actors cannot convince the audience to connect to even the smallest shred of their intertwining lives. Perhaps we can only blame the director Kevin Cochran who should have been able to pull this complicated and well-written script into some semblance of objective reality.
Though it was fun to see the joy Duncan and George experienced when they stripped down and romped off to a swim, one wonders why it took so long for that joyful moment to occur. And why, oh why, do experienced actors have to – when they bare all – have to dash off stage as though their beauty and joy somehow needed to be hidden? If actors cannot be comfortable in the nude, they should not get nude!
An equinox is a time when, as Vanessa says, “the world hangs in a balance.” I presume an eternal equinox would be such a balance unresolved. The balance between Vanessa, Duncan, and George remains unresolved. It seems to be resolved in Vanessa’s tyrannical torture that whips Duncan into emotional and artistic submission. This is not a satisfactory resolution for this critic. Someone needs to take the blame. My bet is on the director who should have been able to stir these talented actors’ back stories into a fractured frenzy. Meantime, I long for that reunion with Virginia. Just saying.
ETERNAL EQUINOX
The performance schedule is Tuesday – Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM and 8:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM through Saturday March 31. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.
Permalink | Posted by David Roberts on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
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