From left: Marie Dinolan plays Spoon, Gabriel Rysdahl is Troy, Kirk Gostkowski is Max, and Christina Elise Perry is Nicole in Eric Bogosian’s Humpty Dumpty.
Written in 2000 and inspired by the Y2K scare, Eric Bogosian’s dark apocalyptic play Humpty Dumpty is finally receiving its New York premiere after debuting at the McCarter Theater Center in Princeton, N.J., in 2002. At that time, Bogosian’s script included dialogue that eerily foreshadowed the September 11 attacks. Now it serves as a cautionary tale about mankind’s dependence on technology.
Troy and his girlfriend Spoon are one of two couples trapped in a cabin during a power outage.
Set in the present, the play follows two couples—one from Manhattan, the other from Los Angeles—who decide to take a weeklong vacation together in a cozy cabin in upstate New York. When the power suddenly shuts down, not only in the cabin but in the surrounding two counties, the four friends—novelist Max (Kirk Gostkowski); his wife, Nicole (Christina Elise Perry), a book editor; Max’s college buddy Troy, a screenwriter (Gabriel Rysdahl); and Troy’s girlfriend Spoon (Marie Dinolan), an actress—find their world turned upside down. A fifth character, Nat (Brandon Hughes), the local handyman, helps them to navigate the power outage with his survival skills.
The play’s conceit that conspicuously consuming and career-driven Americans are ill-equipped to deal with more serious matters of global consequence still holds up well, but although Bogosian’s gift for poking fun at the self-involved makes for lively dialogue, the plot comes up short. So little information is available from the outside world during the blackout that the characters can only speculate on the availability of gas, the food and water supply, or when the electricity will return. The play’s themes of isolation and potential menace are chillingly underscored, however, when a character begins to mimic playing a banjo and quips: “Remember that movie Deliverance?”
Of course the National Guard has supposedly been alerted, but the only incident that causes any real concern is when Nicole cuts her hand on a can of crabmeat and gets several stitches at the local hospital.
Under the direction of Ella Jane New, some uniformly strong acting buoys the production, with each performer compensating for what’s not in the script with their own imagination.
Brandon Hughes plays the local handyman Nat. Photographs by Matt Wells.
Gostkowski exudes confidence as Max. From the moment he enters with his box of books in tow, he acts like the kingpin, who, even though exhausted after a 5½-hour drive from the city, wants to take an inventory of their Adirondack retreat. To this end, he pokes his head in every nook and cranny of the rustic getaway, sizing up the amenities and testing what functions and what doesn’t. His inspection drives home the fact that, in spite of the picturesque surroundings, Max is joined at the hip to his technology.
Perry portrays Max’s savvy wife, Nicole, giving her a brash exterior that conceals a more vulnerable woman within. Perry brings a chameleon-like quality to the character; she is by turns confident, flirty, paranoid, and mad as a hatter. In short, Perry navigates a variety emotional moods, from the fun-loving moment early on when she calls Max her “Daniel Boone” for making the fireplace come to life (“You did that so well! A regular frontiersman. I’m impressed. My own Daniel Boone.”) to her moment of utter dejection during the power outage (“Max, being smart doesn’t count around here. Whether you like it or not. This isn’t Scrabble. This is a whole different rule book.”)
Rysdahl gives the right swagger to Troy, who comes across as an artist who has his finger in every pie. In fact, this Los Angeles high roller is currently working on three screenwriting projects (“I’m like the guy with the spinning plates. Spin, spin, spin.”) But Rysdahl also shows Troy’s dark side: he hightails it out of the cabin when he can no longer tolerate the cold and the dwindling food supply.
Dinolan plays Spoon (named Spoonful by her hippie parents, presumably after the “Lovin’ Spoonful”), an actress who is struggling with a drinking problem. One of the signs, in fact, that the power outage is chipping away at Spoon’s psychological well-being is when she begins to drink “hard” cider and snaps at Troy: “If I want to drink hard cider, I’ll drink it. I really resent you mocking me in front of everybody. Treating me like some kind of bimbo.”
Hughes invests the handyman with an easygoing charm: Nat may be a hick, but, in the world of this play, he is seen as more authentic because he’s less materially acquisitive and self-involved.
Bogosian is best-known for his plays Talk Radio and SubUrbia as well as his fiery one-man monologues. Humpty Dumpty, though disappointing in this new iteration, still offers a vital lesson for all those who think they can’t live without their technology.
Eric Bogosian’s Humpty Dumpty plays through May 3 at the Chain Theatre. Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday. For tickets and more information, visit chaintheatre.org.
Playwright: Eric Bogosian
Director: Ella Jane New
Set: David Henderson
Lighting: Michael Abrams
Costumes: Rafaella Rossi
Sound: Greg Russ
