Mira (Tora Nogami Alexander), Beckett (Morgan Morse), and Edgar (David M. Lutken) do some serious jamming on The Porch on Windy Hill.
Emotions turn on a dime in The Porch on Windy Hill, the “new play with old music” at Urban Stages. They’re illogical and inconsistent, and that’s why you’ll probably enjoy the old music more than the new play, which is by Sherry Stregack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse, and David M. Lutken. But as for the old music, you are likely to enjoy it very much indeed.
The porch itself is a beauty, evocatively designed by Andrew Robinson: rotting floorboards, grimy siding, ramshackle furniture, a telephone wire spindle for a coffee table, a rotary phone visible through the smudged front window. It’s just the sort of place you’d expect to find a technophobic, set-in-his-ways curmudgeon.
Edgar excels on banjo, harmonica, guitar, and dulcimer.
And that’s Edgar (David M. Lutken), a Vietnam vet grudging his way through the early post-pandemic. Edgar, a widower and sad about it, has one great joy in life: the “wingdings,” “pickin’ parties,” “play parties,” “hootenannys,” or “shindigs,” the bluegrass get-togethers at his local church, where he leads with banjo, harmonica, guitar, and dulcimer. The cascade of synonyms is part of the authors’ intent to educate the audience in bluegrass; you’ll also hear the names of at least a dozen artists past and present, with whom you’ll likely be unfamiliar.
Motoring through these hills, in a faulty van, are Mira (Tora Nogami Alexander) and her boyfriend, Beckett (Morse). They’re en route to Atlanta from Brooklyn, and if western North Carolina seems out of the way, Mira may have a hidden motive. She happens on the pickin’ party, sees Edgar, and hollers out, “Edgar Wilson!” Why doesn’t she holler out “Grandpa!”? For that’s who he is, but the audience is meant to be kept in suspense about that for a bit—clumsy.
Has Mira engineered the journey to confront Edgar?
Edgar and Mira haven’t communicated for ages, having parted acrimoniously. She’s biracial, he dissed her Korean dad, and she endured a harassment episode when she was seven—a harrowing one, surely, but did it justify the rage that has consumed her for two decades? She also has tender childhood memories, mainly over her grandma’s cookies and the music Edgar taught her. The latter inspired her eventually to become a classical violinist, also expert in dulcimer and erhu, a Chinese stringed instrument that turns out to sound pretty good playing bluegrass. Perhaps her love of music led her to Beckett, a folk scholar pursuing a dissertation on how the divergent roots of American folk fused to create a unique musical tapestry; he sure rattles on about it. He’s also proficient on mandolin, banjo, and guitar.
That’s a lot of instruments, and luckily the three spend much of the first act playing them, a steady stream of folk standards like “Down in the Valley” and “Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground,” plus such beguiling obscurities as “Columbus Stockade Blues” and “Sail Away Ladies.” They’re fabulous musicians, they can also sing, and as long as the concert is on, The Porch on Windy Hill is a pleasure.
Beckett and Mira in one of their quieter moments. Photos by Ben Hider.
But the music dries up after the intermission, with the bitter family dynamics taking center stage. You can probably guess whether Mira and Edgar grope toward reconciliation, or whether the frequent shouting matches between Mira and Beckett subside. But the tone’s so shifty—one moment the couple are screaming at each other, the next her head’s on his shoulder—that little of the drama carries much weight.
The actors are fine, with Alexander conveying Mira’s ambivalence about her past, Morse negotiating Beckett’s changes of mood, and Lutken, though he seems young for the part, a quite touching Edgar, torn between his love for his granddaughter and the destructive influences of living in MAGA territory, a factor that might rate more exploration. Sherry Stregack Lutken stages it unpretentiously, and John Salutz’s lighting includes a lovely rosy glow for a North Carolina summer eve. Sun Hee Kil’s sound design, though clearly sweetened in spots, keeps the lyrics audible and lends the music a natural, authentic timbre.
Somewhat clunky drama, then, but an aural treat, The Porch on Windy Hill should delight bluegrass fans and leave non-fans hungry for more. “Ain’t much point in talking about music,” opines Edgar, “the point is to play it.” He’s got that right!
The Porch on Windy Hill plays through Oct. 11 at Urban Stages (259 W. 30th St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Saturday; matinees are at 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and more information, visit www.urbanstages.org.
Playwrights: Sherry Stregack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse, & David M. Lutken
Director: Sherry Stregack Lutken
Lighting Design: John Salutz
Set Design: Andrew Robinson
Sound Design: Sun Hee Kil
Costume Design: Grace Jeon
Orchestrations & Vocal Arrangements: David M. Lutken, Morgan Morse, Lisa Helmi Johanson, & Sherry Stregack Lutken
