For many, the Labor Day holiday is a chance for rest and relaxation. For the two couples in Kim Carney's original play, the Purple Rose Theater Company's latest production, "Labor Day," is a single night on which the hopes and fears of happiness tentatively rest.
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Labor Day The Garage Theater Through March 8, 1997. Call 475-7902. |
First there is Ginny (Terry Heck) and Ron (Jim Porterfield), a married couple who annually spends Labor Day weekend at the Aunt Lily's Wayward Pines River Lodge on the Muskegon River. Ron's paranoia at Ginny running ahead to answer the phone and her excessive happiness arouse suspicion that there is more to this marriage than meets the eye.
The other couple, Sharon (Cheryl Leigh Williams) and Matt (Guy Sanville), are spending the night in order to get some work done for their business.
Though there is much about "Labor Day" that is good - the dialogue is often funny, the set (designed by Bartley H. Bauer) is intricately constructed and the end of the first act has quite a wonderful twist - the second act has its share of problems. Much of it is somewhat fantastical, taking away the sincere realism Carney must have labored to create before that point.
The story, however, unravels in the second act without much chance of survival. What began as a string of adult nightmares and fantasies of parenthood becomes a far-fetched confrontation between a young woman (Tricia Smith) and Ginny and Ron. The metaphysical undercurrent of this meeting is dealt with simplisticly.
The young woman's presence is less about her than it is about Ginny's and Ron's failure to handle the tragedies in their lives. Her role is to flesh out various aspects of Ron, Ginny and Cheryl.
Using the young woman in such a role without distinct characterization makes her more of a symbol than anything else, and her place in the plot is much less the result of Carney's imagination than convenience. Giving the young woman more of a distinctive character would leave much more room for dramatic effect.
Despite all of this, however, there are some satisfying moments in the play. Ron's lecture to Matt about the responsibilities of fatherhood and Smith's exaggerated delivery of her character provide some of the best laughs of the evening.
Though the play has its faults, it accomplishes an important objective. It entertains, inspires laughter and may make the more sensitive tear a little. Perhaps, also, a few who are not that sensitive.
Cheryl Leigh Williams and Terry Heck star in "Labor Day."