OBSERVER: Between The Lines
Directed by Renee Palmer, Between The Lines: The James Joyce/Groucho Marx Letters is a new play by Steve Carey.
Scenes alternate between two time periods, giving the play a Stoppardian vibe: one set in 1937, featuring James Joyce (Tref Gare) and Groucho Marx (Scott Middleton); and the other in 1987.
In the latter, Seon Williams portrays Pandora, a smart, determined fledgling academic, fervent about her research into newly discovered letters between Joyce and Marx.
Teaming up with an academic, Murray Dalton (Shannon Woollard), Pandora’s mother (Christina Costigan) warns her daughter to be cautious. The powerful can abuse.
The bloated-with-self-esteem academic, Dalton, whom Pandora rightly expects to occupy a higher moral ground on academic integrity, fails miserably.
The 1987 narrative has a lot to unpack and can occasionally lapse into glib exposition of traumatic events.
That said, all three actors commendably animate their characters’ intellectual twists and emotional intrigues.
As the story builds toward a climax the audience has more or less anticipated, it remains satisfying to witness the irreversibility of consequences and to see the academic get his comeuppance.
Constructed from hundreds of boxes, Ishan Vivekanantham’s clever staging narrows the space, creating an intimate atmosphere.
A raised dais sets the scene for 1937, allowing a meta reading of the play, in which Marx and Joyce, seated just above the action, listen in and respond to the characters’ conversations in 1987.
The Joyce and Marx scenes are a joy.
Both Gare and Middleton bring Joyce and Marx to life with playful energy, matching each other as they joust over wonderful lines from the letters.
Gare brings a melancholic edge to Joyce, while Middleton excellently bridges the divide between Marx’s desire to understand Joyce intellectually, all the while never losing sight of the fact that he, Marx, plays the role of a clown.
Presented at fortyfivedownstairs.
Review by Kathryn Keeble
Pictured: Shannon Woollard and Christina Costigan in Between the Lines: The James Joyce/Groucho Marx Letters.
Photo: Jody Jane Stitt