On Friday night, local theatre company STAGEright celebrated the opening night of their fifth production; a delightfully absurdist comedy by playwright Sarah Ruhl. Melancholy Play both celebrates and pokes fun at a dying state of mind.
Today when a person sighs deeply, and spends long hours lying on a couch or staring out a window, we call them depressed and we medicate them. We do not value this bittersweet sadness that is a part of the human psyche. Melancholy makes happiness sweeter, joy more complete. When we cannot experience the darker side of human emotion how can we fully appreciate its brighter side? That being said, (and as one medicated for depression can attest to) we must realize that while necessary, melancholy is not a state that we should strive to maintain. Melancholy separates us from others, and this solitude can cause us in time to be so removed from our fellow humans that we may as well be 'almonds.' This is the message that Sarah Ruhl seems to be making in Melancholy.
Accompanied by the sweet sad sounds of the cello, played by Rachael Beaver, the cast of STAGEright's Melancholy Play sighs, cavorts, laughs, falls in love, falls out of love and experiences the full gamut of human emotion among a simple set of white windows hung against a black backdrop. A simple fainting couch, window bench and a couple of stools make up the remainder of the set. Lighting is subtle, and imperceptibly executed.
As Tilly, the melancholic maiden whose bittersweet sadness lures others to fall in love with her, Megan Tyrrell is natural in her sobriety. While this state seems to suit her, the others that fall into her dark world seem over the top in comparison, with Mike Jones, as Lorenzo the psychologist of "unspecified European" descent, as the master of campy melodrama.
An ongoing theme of the show is obsessive love. Jordan Melin, as Frank, and Anna Townes, as Frances, and the previously mentioned Lorenzo all fall in love with Tilly. This love seeks to consume the her. Her melancholy is a drug and they are addicts. Jenn Owen, as Joan, Frances' older partner, too comes to love Tilly, but their is more of a friendship of kindred spirits. Melancholy is a thing that experience teaches us, and Joan as the oldest of the characters may have already had her share. For the others it is a new thing and it is intoxicating.
Melancholy Play is playing at Freehold Theatre (2222 Second Avenue, Suite 200,Seattle, WA) one block south of The Rendezvous in Bell Town, with shows Friday (8pm), Saturday (8pm), and Sunday (5:30pm) through July 31st. Tickets are $15 and available at http://www.brownpaperticke
Directed by Lexi Clements Deschambault, Melancholy Play is funny, it is campy, but it is also challenging. It dares us to feel like Tilly feels; both her sadness and her ecstasy. Do you dare? I hope you do!
Loves!
~ Fosse Jack
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