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Sunday, October 17, 2010

REVIEW: FICTION @ CHESTER THEATRE GROUP

It is ironic that a play about writing fiction—that is, made-up, invented stories—should ring so true, but that’s what happens at the Chester Theatre Group’s Fiction by Stephen Dietz. Directed by Jeff Knapp and featuring just three actors, this production possesses an intimacy and a freshness so natural and convincing that it feels like we’re watching real life unfold before our very eyes.

The plot revolves around two sets of diaries, each kept by a husband (Michael) and wife (Linda) over the course of their marriage. Both are fiction writers—he more prolific than she—with her first (and only) novel, At the Cape, garnering much praise for its apparent truthfulness. With a diagnosis of five weeks to live, Linda asks Michael to promise to read her journals after her death from a brain tumor. In return, she wants to read his before she dies. Flummoxed at first by her plea, Michael acquiesces, albeit hesitantly. When Linda begins to read about his dalliance with a young woman named Abby during his month-long stay at the Drake Writers Colony, she begins to question the trustworthiness and solidity of their marriage, even as she opines that “a marriage, however good, is not a tell-all enterprise.”

ficton ctg 2 Dietz’s smart script contains a plethora of Beatles references and sly, witty comments on language, all evident in the opening interaction between Michael and Linda, and played out through the course of the play. Just listening to Linda recall the use of alliteration and onomatopoeia by the doctor calling to give her the bad news about her health is, for language lovers, worth the price of the ticket! And Dietz has both Michael and Linda read from his diaries, one flowing into the other, which really makes the words sound as though he has written them. I especially like Michael’s pronouncement that he “does not like to write; he likes to have written,” something all writers (including this one) understand! And the dialogue spoken by the characters sounds natural, whether it be between husband and wife or between a man and a much younger woman he’s flirting with.

Of course, such dialogue needs talented actors to speak it and a sure-handed director to control it for maximum effect. Here, CTG’s Fiction as it all. Director Jeff Knapp designed the sound for a previous production at the Bickford Theatre a couple of years ago; he has used the same sound here, but has assumed the director’s chair with much success. His steady hand is necessary for a play whose plot line is not linear and in a theater where the corners, as well as the small center performance space, are used for various locations. Too, the give-and-take of dialogue never flags; the responses are so quick that we are convinced a real conversation is taking place.

fiction ctg 1As Michael, Tom Morrissey’s expressive eyes register a variety of emotions, from elation to sheepishness to guilt. We often don’t know how to respond to this handsome, charming man, an author who is not above quoting Dante’s words as his own but who tries to cover his revealed infidelities by claiming that he made them up. That he loves his wife is evident in his body language and the way he looks at her. As Linda, Carol Holland is just as credible. She’s stoic, even funny, facing her imminent demise, and her rant at Michael about the discoveries she has made in his diaries is fierce and heart-breaking. A lover of language, she makes up funny, sharp nicknames for her students, yet she argues passionately that Janis Joplin’s “A Piece of My Heart” is the greatest rock and roll vocal performance, ever (as opposed to Michael’s nomination of the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout”). She truly is, as Michael writes in his  diary, “chillingly vibrant.”

And D’Angelique fiction ctg 3 Dopson’s Abby Drake takes care not to lead Michael on as she gets him set up in his cottage at the writers’ colony, but she exudes controlled furor at their meeting in Paris after a long period of not hearing from him. And because two years before meeting Michael she had met Linda, when Linda attended the colony and wrote her best-selling novel, it is up to her to reveal the most important fiction of all—but you’ll have to see the show to find out just what that is!

The Chester Theatre Group was nominated for a rash of Perry Awards in 2010 (eleven, I believe), and it’s clear that this production should nail a few more this year. Fiction is a thought-provoking play about the lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell each other and, in the case of professional authors, the lies that get turned into best-selling novels. It is also a play about marriage, trust and truthfulness, and just how much of the latter we are obligated to share with our spouse/partner. Perhaps some things are best left hidden.

Fiction will be performed Friday and Saturday at 8 PM through October 23 at the Black River Playhouse, at the corner of Grove and Maple Streets in picturesque Chester. For information and tickets, call the box office at 908.879.7304. Tickets are $18; seniors and students $16 on Friday.