Martha Plimpton (Julia), Clare Higgins
(Edna), Lindsay Duncan (Claire),
Glenn Close (Agnes), John Lithgow (Tobias), Bob Balaban (Harry). Photography by Brigitte Lacombe
Reviewed by James Karas
A Delicate
Balance opens with the question of sanity.
Agnes (Glenn Close), a woman in her 50’s, in a sort of reverie expresses her
belief that she might lose her mind one day. She is talking with her husband Tobias (John
Lithgow) and the dialogue continues in that vein until they are interrupted by
Agnes’s alcoholic sister, Claire (Lindsay Duncan).
A Delicate Balance is now
playing on Broadway at the Golden Theatre in a deftly directed production by
Pam McKinnon.
The play occupies
an opaque space; a world where everything seems and should be normal but
nothing is. The world of the play remains opaque manoeuvring between the
incomprehensible and the mundane, striking a delicate balance between reality
and unreality.
Agnes and Tobias
are very well off and live in a beautiful suburban house. (Santo Loquasto’s set
is gorgeous). They are a solid couple enjoying the fruits of success from the
house to the well-stocked bar to the country club. Claire is a devout drinker
who denies that she is an alcoholic and provides acerbic comments and considerable
humour to the play. The two sisters hate each other.
Harry (Bob
Balaban) and Edna (Deirdre Madigan) arrive unexpectedly and move in with Tobias
and Agnes. We are repeatedly told that they are best friends and both couples
accept that but what are the visitors doing in Tobias’s house and why are they
there in the first place? Are they terrified of something or are they terror itself?
Are they plagued by something or are they the plague itself?
This is the
central question of the play. The two couples are best friends and Tobias and Agnes
accept the fact that they must stand by their friends. Nerves get frayed,
unpleasantness emerges but the core relationship and the obligation to help is
never really questioned. But the central question is never answered. Are we
still in the opaque world between soundness of mind and losing one’s moorings?
Are we in that opaque world and holding onto a delicate balance?
We are treated
to some superb performances by the cast of six actors. Lithgow gives a nuanced
performance as the decent man caught in an impossible situation. He has to put
up with Agnes who is getting frustrated, his sister-in-law who is crazy and his
daughter Julia (Martha Plimpton) who comes home after breaking up with her
fourth husband. The interplay between Claire and Julia and Claire and Agnes results
in some wonderful humour. There is laughter even in an incomprehensible world.
Julia provides some of the tension as well and eventually brings things to a
head by going berserk.
Balaban and
Madigan give solid performances as the lost couple. A special tribute is due to
Madigan who took over for Clare Higgins and gave a splendid performance as
Edna.
The play ends
where it began with Agnes musing on the fact that one day she will lose her
mind. She will not know if it happens and maybe it has already happened. She
invokes light and the sun and it reminded me of Osvald’s last words in Ibsen’s Ghosts
as he slips into syphilitic madness: “The sun-the sun.”
______
A
Delicate Balance by Edward Albee continues until February 22, 2015 at the John Golden
Theatre 252 West 45th St. New York, NY. http://www.adelicatebalancebroadway.com/
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