ACT I stages a moving version of Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer winner The Shadow Box
Love and Death
by Martin Brady
ACT I's new production of Michael Cristofer's The Shadow Box is a well-modulated and worthy version of the author's 1977 Pulitzer Prize winner. Pulitzers are generally awarded to plays that go beyond craftsmanship and grapple with meaningful societal issues. That's the case here, as the playwright takes us onto the grounds of a hospital where terminally ill patients are preparing for the end, visited by friends and family. Cristofer adds a gimmick: Everyone submits to a Q&A conducted (presumably) by a medical or psychological professional, and those interludes offer us valuable insight into the relationships that are playing out in three separate cottages.
Director David McGinnis draws credible and affecting performances from most of his cast of nine, especially Macon Kimbrough, Christi Dortch, Patricia Rulon and Memory Strong. Joyce Jeffries also makes a strong impression as the unseen clinical interviewer. The remaining players display some inexperience, but McGinnis maximizes their ability to inhabit their characters with sensitivity and humanity, if not the highest style.
On the surface, The Shadow Box may sound like a downer, but it's a carefully realized drama about death that dares to focus more on the emotions of the living who will be left behind. Cristofer's writing holds a strange power — able to communicate hope in what might otherwise seem the direst of circumstances.
Email arts@nashvillescene.com.
Recent Comments
-
Re: Generation VHS: A Film Nerd’s Quest to Save a Lost Era
That comment was so May 22.
- on May 23, 2013
-
Re: Generation VHS: A Film Nerd’s Quest to Save a Lost Era
Hello and welcome to 3 years ago
-
on May 22, 2013
-
Re: What To Wear: The Source Family Edition
My brother had a pair of those pentagram earrings. They went missing sometime around 1989,…
- on May 22, 2013
-
Re: Local Filmmakers' A Measure of the Sin Tonight at Belcourt
It is this subtle dimension of understanding that marks the southwestern Indian peoples from other…
- on May 22, 2013
-
Re: Local Filmmakers' A Measure of the Sin Tonight at Belcourt
When the healthy nature of man acts as a whole, when he feels himself to…
- on May 22, 2013
- More »
