Review: UCSB Takes on Eno with MIDDLETOWN

I became familiar with playwright Will Eno's work via Thom Paine {Based on Nothing}. Thom Paine was an aggressive and existential play, a performance in which the audience's engagement with the actor is based, if only a little, in terror. Through Thom Paine, Eno communicated a fascination with awkwardness-an emotion difficult to avoid in the face of a monologue so uncomfortable and hostile and without fourth-wall protection that the boundaries of reality and theatricality were blurred. When I saw that UCSB was producing a different Will Eno play, Middletown, my interest was immediately piqued. I had certain expectations-undoubtedly the dialogue would be rapid and intelligent, with layers of subtext built with precision into each scene; but would the tone match the manic energy of Thom Paine?

Director Thomas Whitaker calls Middletown "a post-Beckett Our Town," an apt comparison in terms of the play's structure-a series of correlated vignettes that dovetail together as each character's journey draws to conclusion. Instead of relying on a clear objective to push the plot along a certain course, Middletown asserts the importance of seemingly inconsequential moments in characters' lives. These moments are designed to show the significant truth of the Middletown existence hidden in insignificant acts. Middletown exhibited a sense of softness and humanity absent in Thom Paine while asking a similar, universal question: why do we exist?

Middletown is a fairly literal name for a town that exists somewhere at the median. Thoreau's concept of quiet desperation is conveyed through characters who lament their own mediocrity, but those moments of wry humor with an undercurrent of grief or disappointment are balanced with acts of beauty and transcendence that hone in on the satisfactions of the human experience, both personal and universal. Middletown exists on an axis, at the apex of lines representing the time between birth and death; the area from deep within the earth to outer space; the eon from the beginning of time to the present moment-and the mystery of what lies in the future. Whitaker explained that producing a play so rife with the naturalness of the cycle of birth, life, and death, and the curiosity of why we exist, was a response to the confusing and intense emotions of mourning. The UCSB community, after having experienced a disturbing tragedy in the last year, was brutally reminded of the very fleeting-and sometimes seemingly futile-nature of life; Middletown commiserates that the human experience can be terrifying, but reminds us to seek meaning, despite fear, even in the quietest of moments.

UCSB's production of this heavily symbolic work exhibited well-developed concepts and characters. The set, including a half-orb on an indigo stage, was marbled around the edges with grass-a blue and green swirl that gave the impression of a view from space into the little community of Middletown. A cube, deemed a monument, stood at the pinnacle of the orb throughout the first act, an enduring remnant of the past. In the second act, a tree was planted in place of the monument-a fresh-sapling centerpiece, a reminder of the continuation of the universe beyond the mortality of the characters, even the play itself. Cairns, small pyramids of rocks, were built in various locations around the set: signposts for a trail that can't be predetermined. Accessible and agonizing, Middletown had an honest, sensitive consciousness of our impermanence that served as reconciliation of the tragedy of death paired with the miracle of life-and the importance of everything in between. The production was impressive and timely, and the performances were subtle and deeply considered. The UCSB Department of Theatre/Dance constructed and executed this complex play with a deep range of humanity; Middletown teaches (or reminds) us to find joy in the awkwardness of life.

Eno's script is infused with a balance of dark humor and tenderness, and it highlights the importance of finding unexpected wonder in the ordinary. It's an ambitious choice, but UCSB's rendition was appropriately jovial in its awkwardness and gracious in its tragedy. Standout performances include that of Ian Elliott, who played John Dodge, the cheerfully depressed handyman, with great dignity. Bed-ridden after a botched suicide, Dodge tells the doctors, "for once, I wanted to be an emergency." This obsession with rising above apparent mediocrity is endemic throughout Middletown, and there's true tragedy in the fact that some characters may never achieve their desperately sought moments of glory. Fast and impressive, Middletown has undeniable biting humor and an honest eye to the lovely mess we all make of our lives-and a reminder of the consequences of a life lived unfulfilled.

Middletown
by Will Eno
Directed by Tom Whitaker
Photographs by David Bazemore

What's Next at UCSB? Look for:

The Importance of Being Earnest
Directed by Simon WIlliams
February 13-15, 17-22

In The Brown and Red Water
Directed by Shirley Jo Finney
February 27-March 2, March 5-7

www.theaterdance.ucsb.edu

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