Theatre Review by Ron Fassler . . .
The plays of the prolific Samuel D. Hunter have one common theme: connection. The Idaho born and reared Hunter, the region in which he sets the majority of his plays, is someone deeply passionate on the nature of empathy. To the betterment of mindful audiences everywhere, his work reeks of it. Grangeville, now at the Signature Theatre, is the sixth of seven shows I have seen of his in their off-Broadway premieres. Among them have been The Whale (2012), Greater Clements (2019), and the exceptional A Case for the Existence of God (2022), a fascinating play which I consider his best (also produced at Signature). Hunter has an uncanny ear for the way people speak but is also able to write in a poetic style that never pays attention to itself. Tennessee Williams, in his devotion to writing about the Deep South, allowed many of his characters to dream their flights of fancy in sophisticated language—and beautifully so. Hunter keeps the feet of his Idaho denizens firmly planted on the ground.
Pain is the price paid for most of Hunter’s men and women seeking their own personal truth while attempting to navigate family trauma. Challenging upbringings as children and subsequent difficulties in personal relationships as adults are at the foundational core of his work. The lead characters in Grangeville, Jerry (Paul Sparks) and Arnold, or Arnie (Brian J. Smith) are half-brothers—sons of the same mother—who have endured not only her indifference in raising them, but also from her not keep them safe from a set of abusive fathers. Ten years apart in age and estranged for decades, the elder Jerry also abused Arnie when they lived in the same home, mostly due to Arnie’s being gay. There is no love lost between these two. Their elderly mother, in a coma on her deathbed, is unconsciously—literally and figuratively—opening up communication between them. Jerry and Arnie are separated by different continents (Arnie lives with his husband in Rotterdam), so that for nearly the entire play, they only connect over the phone or at a computer screen.
There comes a bit of a shock nearly an hour in that introduces two new characters; each of the brother’s respective spouses. In something of a tour de force, no new actors are brought in. Instead, Sparks and Smith transform themselves on a dime. I’m on the fence whether this works for the play or not. Although considering even with these scenes, the play only comes in at eighty minutes, perhaps Jerry and Arnie arguing for all that time would have been wearisome. That’s not to say being in the company of such fine actors as Sparks and Smith isn’t a pleasure, particularly Sparks. His Jerry, an uneducated, down on his luck victim of his own stasis, avoids the cliches that often come with such a role (he’s costumed wearing a baseball cap the entire play). But Sparks infuses things with a soulfulness that is surprising and ultimately quite winning. Smith, the polar opposite in demeanor, sometimes gets a little too caught up in Arnie’s neuroses. At times, I wish he and director Jack Serio hadn’t chosen to make so many obvious choices with regard to some of his negative tirades.
The set is another odd decision in that there really isn’t one until late in the play when one is brought in for the final scene. Created by the usually dependable DOTS consortium, what we see for the majority of its playing time is a long, black, wall (negative space, really) made out of what looks like granulated rubber. To break up the monotony of black, there is a door at one side that is only used once when it is merely walked through. Also odd are the play’s opening ten-minutes which take place entirely in the dark. This may have been the playwright’s concept, the director’s—or both—but considering there’s simply no reason to watch it in the dark, it feels inexplicable. Since it’s the opening scene, it doesn’t create any tension, because we’re too busy trying to figure out who these two men are and what their relationship is. And if the darkness isn’t there to create tension, then all it creates is, well . . . darkness.
In spite of these slight drawbacks, this is theatre well worth seeing. Hunter has yet to fail in his ability to shine a light on interesting characters in dramatically worthy situations. He always provides good roles for actors, too, and here creates a sizable showcase for Paul Sparks (excellent last year opposite Michael Shannon in Waiting for Godot) and Brian J. Smith (Tony nominated eleven years back for his Gentleman Caller in the Cherry Jones Glass Menagerie). Grangeville packs enough of a punch to leave you a bit groggy as you exit the theatre. Isn’t that the sort of powerful blow you want from a play?
Grangeville is playing through March 23 at the Signature Theatre, 480 W 42nd Street, NYC. For ticket information, please visit: https://signaturetheatre.org.
Photos by Emilio Madrid.
Featured photo: Paul Sparks and Brian J. Smith
