Rebecca Gilman’s “The Sweetest Swing in Baseball” throws a curveball so baffling it would leave Barry Bonds in the dust. The kind you go ahead and take a swing at, but you look a little foolish in the attempt.
This intriguing new play opens strong, grounded as a realistic contemporary drama. Dana is a former art-world phenom whose new show is a failure. Her boyfriend is leaving her. She’s depressed. So she slits her wrists and turns up in a psych ward. But her insurance company will pay for only 10 days, and she’s justifiably afraid of what she might do should she be released too soon.
So Dana adopts a celebrity personality – a diagnosis that will guarantee her an indefinite stay. Now, the curveball that would make Three Finger Brown tip his cap: Dana will imitate Darryl Strawberry, one of baseball’s biggest stars until he, like Dana, flamed out before realizing his full potential. Now, Dana knows as much about baseball as Don Imus knows about political correctness. So why this diminutive woman chooses to embody a 6-foot-6 black man she knows nothing about is a bit baffling.
Which is not to say it can’t work as a theatrical device. After all, Dana ultimately reconnects with her muse through parallelisms she discovers in her alter ego’s downfall. It all depends on where you go with it.
But Denver Center Theatre Company director Wendy C. Goldberg’s staging doesn’t just curve – it forks. Meaning not everyone goes off in the same direction as that curveball nears home plate.
As serious as this subject matter is, logic suggests the only way a sharp turn toward the absurd can work is to treat it as a broad comedy – otherwise, it’s just confounding. Most of the actors take the comedy route, while Dana (Kathleen McCall) remains incongruously grounded in heavy drama.
But c’mon, there isn’t anyone from Shea Stadium to the American Psychological Association who would believe for one second that Dana actually “becomes” Strawberry. She is clearly “of herself” at all times. In the end, her deepest emotional problem turns out to be a hypersensitivity to criticism.
Aggravating things is a preponderance of asides and apologies in the script that acknowledge Dana isn’t believable, which begs two questions: Why would any licensed doctor go along with this charade? And why not explore the possibility that Strawberry’s persona is actually seeping into Dana’s psyche? Well, in the final seconds, that’s just what Gilman asks us to believe, though nothing has justified this final curve.
All of which obscures the play’s many intriguing talking points about the fickle commerce of art and the need to enjoy our successes – as well as many outstanding support performances (everyone but McCall plays two roles).
As Dana’s art dealer and dubious doctor, the remarkable Caitlin O’Connell is fire to McCall’s ice. Sam Gregory is a very funny maniac who tried to kill a CNN anchorman (Why? “He comes into my living room every day and talks to me, OK?”). Endearing Denver newcomer Brad Heberlee is Michael, an alcoholic gay baseball fan lifted off the pages of “Take Me Out.”
But “Swing’s” flaws run deeper than Darryl: Its grasp of baseball is rudimentary, its scene changes abrupt, its ending unconvincing. The second act gets mired as a cat-and- mouse between Dana and the doctor trying to rat her out. That prevents us from seeing Dana get to work on her actual issues, which is ostensibly why she’s putting on this whole charade in the first place.
All of which conspires to make Dana a difficult and thankless role. McCall is very effective in the first act, but an ironic disconnect takes place after her breakdown.
A gallery owner (the excellent Megan Byrne) bluntly assesses Dana as having gone from a thrillingly raw and messy young artist to one who’s all clinical technique. She begs Dana to tap back into that visceral quality that once made her great (which she does, oddly enough, by painting baseball-playing chickens).
The same may be said of McCall, whose reliance on craft becomes a barrier that prevents us from making an empathetic and emotional connection with Dana. She too needs to let go and get messy. Otherwise the performance lacks pathos and transformation.
Though this play is not quite a satire of either the art world or the mental-health system, “Sweetest Swing” still manages to be a compelling and original yarn. It just can’t hit the curve. No shame there. The same is true of Sammy Sosa – and he’s a seven-time all-star.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
—————————————
The Sweetest Swing in Baseball”
DRAMEDY | Denver Center Theatre Company | Written by Rebecca Gilman|Directed by Wendy C. Goldberg|Starring Kathleen McCall, Sam Gregory, Megan Byrne, Brad Heberlee and Caitlin O’Connell | THROUGH MAY 26 | At the Ricketson Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex | 6:30 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays, 1:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays | 1 hour, 50 minutes | $36-$46 | 303-893-4100, 866-464-2626, all King Soopers or denver center.org; 800-641-1222 outside Denver
