In a stroke of fortuitous timing, Modern Muse Theatre Company’s presentation of Lee Blessing’s “A Body of Water” provides a chance for locals to refamiliarize themselves with the playwright before a reading of his newest work at the Colorado New Play Summit later this month.
If there is a thread running through Blessing’s work, it is his use of metaphor to explore the headier questions of life, in this case, the nature of memory, the ephemera of dreams and the discontinuity of consciousness.
If we can believe what we see and hear, Moss (David Payne), a former judge, and Avis (Julia Elstun Payne), a medical administrator, gaze out from their stylish contemporary summer home and discuss the nature of a body of water that nearly surrounds their property, tenuously tethered to the mainland by an access road.
It quickly becomes clear that this is no normal conversation: The couple are unable to remember who they are, what they do and why they are here. In flies Wren (Laura Norman), who is — depending upon which story you believe — their daughter, their therapist, their lawyer or a CIA agent.
Wanting to make sense of their plight, we are drawn in by the generally convincing earnestness with which the pair (Are they married or strangers or both?) question each other and Wren. Everyone — the audience and the actors — is confounded at each turn, as Wren’s answers change with the scenes.
The Paynes parlay their real-life marriage into a compelling examination of the familiar and the alien between longtime companions, moving easily between intimacy and formality, their erudition a good match for the stage couple’s literate focus.
Norman’s Wren brings a refreshing physicality to the cerebrally inclined conversation, providing the impetus to get her parents/patients/clients/suspects out for a walk or a ride in the country, furthering the dramatic arc by reshuffling the character mix.
The final scene fuels our assumption that Blessing has metaphorically tied the contemporary psycho-therapeutic view of consciousness — a speck of awareness surrounded by the deep waters of the unconscious — to his characters and setting.
Director Steve Lavezza reinforces the metaphor with up-tempo pacing mimicking the frantic, adrenaline-fueled behavior with which the mind responds to its own confusion. Hans Flinch’s natty set provides a clear space and clean lines for the interior focus of the material.
In coming full circle at the end, the play refreshes us with an existential catharsis born of mutual recognition for the couple and that of the divine comedy for the audience, providing an inkling of optimism, a rarity for postmodern theatre.
Bob Bows also reviews theater for Variety, for KUVO/89.3 FM, and for his own website, . He can be reached at bbows@coloradodrama.com.
“A Body of Water” *** (out of four stars)
Presented by Modern Muse Theatre Company at The Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo St. Written by Lee Blessing. Directed by Stephen J. Lavezza. Starring David Payne, Julia Elstun Payne, and Laura Norman. 1 hour, 50 minutes. Through Feb. 24. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. $15-$20. 303-780-7836.
