Early Retirement Is Not For Everybody In New Play At MRT

The Last Days of Mickey and Jean

Written by Richard Dresser, Directed by Charles Towers, Scenic Design by Bill Clarke, Costume Design by Deborah Newhall, Lighting Design by Dan Kotlowitz, Dialect Coach Julie Nelson, Stage Manager Emily F. McMullen, Assistant Stage Manager Peter Crewe

CAST (in order of appearance): Jack Wetherall, Mickey; Rae C. Wright, Jean; Christopher McHale, Bobby, Dr. Shockley, Tinsel

Performances through April 11 at Merrimack Repertory Theatre                                              Box Office 978-654-4MRT (4678) or www.merrimackrep.org

If ever there was a plot ripe for harvesting into a dark comedy, the sordid stories and travels of Boston's Most Wanted, James "Whitey" Bulger, would surely be near the top of the list. All appropriate legal disclaimers as to the fictitious nature of the characters to the contrary, The Last Days of Mickey and Jean can trace its origins to the spark of an idea about this notorious gangster who has been on the run for fifteen years with his girlfriend. Presumably hiding in Europe, he could be considered retired from his last job as an FBI informant and it is that post-employment status combined with a period of extended travel with a loved one that interest playwright Richard Dresser.

The Merrimack Repertory Theatre World premiere is directed by Artistic Director Charles Towers and performed by an extremely capable trio of actors. Jack Wetherall, last seen on this stage as Gene Tunney, a different kind of fighting man, gives us a mobster who no longer needs to be a tough wise guy, struggling to find his purpose. In the hands of Rae C. Wright, Mickey's long-time companion Jean is very sympathetic as the woman who gave her life over to her man and is now questioning her choices and her future. Playing three roles, Christopher McHale brings variety as Bobby, a lonely man Jean meets in a Paris sidewalk café; Dr. Shockley, a suspicious doctor who treats Mickey for a mysterious malady; and Tinsel, a drag queen-cum-social worker who escorts Mickey back to his hotel room from a night of debauchery and offers some friendly advice for the couple.

Dresser proves that he can mine the wit inherent in the relationship between two people who have been too long on the road together. However, while The Situations he creates provide lots of opportunities for laughs, the humor is shallow and repetitive. After we get the joke, we get it again. In some instances, it gets dissected and explained, just in case we might have missed it; this, even while the audience is in mid-laugh. Combining spot on timing, deadpan delivery, or startled facial expressions, the fault does not lie with the actors. They're giving it their best shots, but they're mostly unarmed with a script that leaves them foundering.

Two of Dresser's earlier plays that I reviewed at MRT feature fully-formed characters, each with a distinctive voice and a purpose, and offer a slice of life that is rich enough to warrant an entire play. He wants us to believe that these people are at a dramatic crossroads, but the story lacks development and their plight is unconvincing. In its present state, Mickey and Jean represents three characters in search of an author (with apologies to Pirandello) to flesh them out and give them something to do besides look out the hotel window and argue about whether or not they're being followed. Unfortunately, the stasis they find themselves in manifests itself in the tone of the play; it can't go anywhere because they can't go anywhere. Although Mickey and Jean break out of the hotel room on occasion, the doctor's office and sidewalk café that they visit are only imagined stage left by a small table and two bistro chairs lit separately from the rest of the set. To convey the locale of an upcoming scene, slides showing Paris exteriors are projected on a screen mounted on the top half of the upstage wall. While this serves as an inoffensive transition mechanism, it is also a continuous reminder that there aren't any actual set changes.

The Last Days of Mickey and Jean might have been part of Dresser's "pursuit of happiness" series as it seems to take on some of the same issues. Despite their togetherness, Mickey and Jean are each on an individual and lonely quest for their elusive happiness. He is lost without his work and she longs for home, but they both harbor long-buried secrets. Even Bobby, the stranger from the café, has a single-minded quest that haunts him and connects him to the fugitive pair. The characters' motivations become clearer as these bits and pieces of the story unfold, but in a rush to tie up all the loose ends, the play stops being funny and becomes maudlin.

Oh, if only Dresser had written about the first days of Mickey and Jean! That might have been a more gripping story, when they met at his get-out-of-jail party and he swept her off her feet. Then a seventeen-year old girl, Jean was enthralled by the piercing stare of the older gangster who all the girls wanted, knowing that her life was forever changed that night. I want to know where life took them after that, what adventures and experiences they had in the intervening years, as opposed to what plays before us here: a couple on the lam, but not on their last legs, and certainly not in their last days. When they reminisce about the old days, it kind of makes me wish we had been there, too.

 

Photo Credit: Meghan Moore (Jack Wetherall, Rae C. Wright)

 

 

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