The Fourth Wall

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

When Director, Billie McBride mounted A. R. Gurney’s comedy The Fourth Wall at Boulder’s Nomad Theatre last Fall, it was a smashing success with Edith Weiss, Scott McLean, Paul A. Dunne, and Rhonda Lee Brown.

From Left to Right: Paul A. Barnes, Geoffrey Kent, Edith Weiss, Mare Trevathan in The Fourth Wall at the Avenue Theater.

When the cast moved that elusive fourth wall to Denver’s Avenue Theatre, the intimacy of that venue gave it an extra punch. So precise was the punch, Bob Wells — Artistic Director of the Avenue — extended the run through October 22.

McLean and Brown had to bow out because of previous commitments. McLean is currently turning the audience on their heads as Riff in Littleton’s Town Hall production of West Side Story directed by Nicholas Sugar.

There are times when it is necessary to replace half the cast; something is lost in the translation. Not so this time. Mare Trevathan and Geoffrey Kent grab hold of their characters with defined ownership. Something there is about the intimacy of The Avenue, having that fourth wall within touching distance that adds to its comedic impact.

McBride comments in her director’s notes she wished the play never had to be done again. What? Never be done again? Because of its political nature, with the re-election of President Bush, Gurney’s plot remains on target. Yes, it goes after Bush, Cheney, and Powell for their slap-happy war yearnings, tax cuts, and their prancing around issues. Because of the nature of the play, a brilliantly written comedy, it could be translated on a number of different levels. The Fourth Wall is bigger than a single political scheme. Whatever one’s politics are, it is still very pertinent, and very very funny. Full of surprises, blatantly political, delectably irreverent, Gurney plays with the entire theatre scheme.

The fourth wall has always been that apron between the stage and the audience. Most of the time plays are written knowing the fourth wall exists, pretending it doesn’t. Actors run through their paces acting as though the audience doesn’t exist, knowing full well it does, because after all that is why they run through their paces to begin with.

Michael R. Duran designed the illustrious illusion of a comfortable living room. It is Peggy (Weiss) who immediately makes some adjustments.

In this particular play the fourth wall becomes an obvious focus.

In upscale suburbia, Peggy becomes obsessed with the wall, rearranging furniture, taking down pictures, and leaving the wall completely blank. Rather than facing the fireplace, the sofa now faces the blank wall. Weiss walks into Peggy’s strong conviction with a natural innocent shield wrap snugly around her. Convinced there is something on the other side of the wall. Convinced if she concentrates long enough, hard enough, she could break through. Innocent as she might be, Peggy, a passionate liberal, feels the need to interact, do something about the underprivileged, the Third World, convinced on the other side of the wall there is a mixture of ethnicities and races that also want to get involved.

Her confused, perplexed husband Roger (Dunne) simply thinks she has lost her mind. Dunne wears confused perplexity as though it is a second skin.

Desperate, he summons Peggy’s best friend, Julia from New York to bring Peggy to her senses. Trevathan takes Julia over the top in a hilarious depiction of an exaggerated Kathryn Hepburn. After all, Peggy may have a point. There just might be someone on the other side of that wall whom she would like to impress. Julia, an opportunist, takes advantage of Roger’s confusion to seduce him.

Rather than call in a psychologist or psychiatrist to help in the strange behavior, Roger calls on Professor Floyd Lesser, assistant drama instructor at the local community college. In Gurney’s playing with theatrics, it is all perfectly clear. If Peggy wants to tinker with the theatre, they need to find her a plot. Kent grabs Floyd by the seat of the pants, commanding the stage as his footstool. He’s not only hell-bent-for-leather to sell his ideas. HeÕs going to sell himself.

Another character, although listed in The Cast, plays an integral part. The piano. A player piano programmed for Cole Porter songs, seems to know when to play and what Porter song to tease the characters into a song and dance routine. Appearing to have nothing to do with anything, at the same time having everything to do with the plot. Even as they sing individually, when another character enters the room to move the story along, they are asked to help finish the song.

Peggy just wants to break out of her suburban comfort zone. She wants to matter. She wants something bigger than herself. As Gurney deliciously plays with theatrics, compounding giggles into downright honest funny, a very strong point pokes its head through the comedic rubble. When Peggy claims, “We have human obligation to stop embellishing our own lives long enough to help unfortunate people elsewhere live any life at all,” the funny ceases for one brilliant moment with Katrina, Rita, the Pakistani earthquake, and the flooding in the northeast stare directly through the fourth wall. Roger insists, “Plays never change the world, and those that do never last.” In reference to Porter, Roger also insists “not everyone can carry a tune.” Not to be undaunted, Peggy retorts, “then they can bang the drum.” Peggy discovers a surprising solution, much to the delight of the audience. Peggy’s innocent determination allows Roger to sample a taste of courage to follow her. Julia and Floyd are left to their own flamboyant devices to continue choreographing their own theatrical dance.

The Fourth Wall is a masterpiece for Gurney, a magnum opus for the extraordinary cast, and a stunning success for The Avenue Theatre. Miss this production and you will miss unrepressed thought-provoking giggles hitting us in the right here, right now world in which we live. And we, as the audience don’t have to redecorate anything. We live on the right side of the fourth wall.