‘The Door Slams, A Glass Trembles’ – Perspective on Time

By Alix Cohen

Established 1974 in New York City, Talking Band was founded by Paul Zimet, Ellen Maddow, and Tina Shepard—all former members of Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theater. Tonight, both women, plus three other virtuoso corps members and two younger actors share the stage in sheer symbiosis. Maddow also composed the evocative music.

The latest offering by playwright/director Paul Zimet is high concept, low impact, intriguing, hypnotic.

Married couple Clara (Ellen Maddow) and Marc (Jack Wetherall) have retired to the country (a bucolic onscreen landscape.) Visiting are their son, Norm (Patrick Dunning), his wife Jenny (Amara Granderson), an unseen baby, and neighbor, Oona (Tina Shepard.)

Setting the dinner table is slow and ritualistic; plates and flatware held high, napkins shaken out, then carefully laid. The five characters purposefully circle. They revolve in place. Moments freeze. What if you were vividly aware of every repeated gesture usually taken for granted? Single statements/memories often comprise entire conversations. An intermittent sound of breaking glass resets mood throughout the production.

The scene is literally repeated with the addition of old friends/neighbors, Rita (Lizzie Olesker) and Rick (Steve Rattazzi.) Once city-dwellers, the couple now farm. Rick has parlayed an agricultural hobby into supplying restaurants. A former activist, he’s defensive about no longer being on the barricades.

Marc and Clara respectively recall ship voyages. “Time stretches and collapses. That’s how it felt on the ship. I had to lay down on the deck to look up,” he says. Youthful love, Anna (Delaney Feener) appears with him onscreen, on deck. She and Marc are 20, as yet unaware who they’ll become.

In the alternate universe of Thomas Mann’s 1900s Switzerland (The Magic Mountain), Zimet’s group resides at a tuberculosis sanatorium. Every character has an alter ego. Anna, now “Clavdia” is disparaged for being loose, alone, or beautiful. Marc coughs blood and suffers unrequited love.

Costumes in these episodes are marvelous- accurate, beautifully tailored, flattering. Oh the hats! A masked ball is particularly creative. (Olivera Gajic)

Mann was obsessed with the experience of time. That illness changes consciousness of passing hours, that memory and boredom compress or stretch, are reoccurring themes. Zimet read ‘Mountain on a 14 day freighter voyage across the Atlantic at 21. “The repetition of the days, the sameness of the sea, mirrored for me the experience of patients in the sanatorium.” As the playwright ages, his own fascination with duration grows.

Death and first cousin, Time, may be the greatest preoccupations of humankind. Cultures conceive these differently. Australian Aboriginals describe it in non-linear ways; ancestral past, present, and future coexist. The Aymara people (in Bolivia and Southern Peru) believe the past is in front of us- because it’s known and sometimes visible, and the future behind, because it can’t be seen. A Maori phrase “ka mua ka uri” is interpreted as “walking backward into the future.”

Several of Zimet’s characters refer to kairos, an ancient Greek personification of opportunity- the forelock at the front of his head can be seized. A manifestation of carpe diem.

Ideas are sprinkled like breadcrumbs through a contemporary scenario, making it curious, fragmented, and oddly engaging. As acting is superb, we relate to characters, but the point may be less human than speculative. Like the string theory, we’re shown what might be simultaneous time as well as the ebb and flow of past and future. It’s a lot to think about.

The cast is wonderful. Every thespian evidences an inner life as well as physical skill. One can get lost in thinking/feeling faces. It’s a particular pleasure to see the mercurial Jack Wetherall again. Last time we watched him dance. Today, his stillness is impenetrable.
Marc is the character most living past ahead, future behind.

Direction is here fluid and dreamlike, there entirely natural. Pacing is immensely effective. Every actor is alive at every moment.

A minimalist set contains that which is needed- in just the right proportion. Layers of water and people projected on top of scenery is a bit muddy. Scenes from Marc’s past on a ship are thoroughly engaging. ( set & video-Anna Kiraly)

Photos by Maria Baranova
Opening: Jack Wetherall, Tina Shepard, Patrick Dunning, Amara Granderson, Ellen Maddow

La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in association with Talking Band presents
The Door Slams, A Glass Trembles
Written and Directed by Paul Zimet
Music by Ellen Maddow
Choreography -Flannery Gregg

La Mama 66 East 4th Street https://lamama.org/