Fiction

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

With one more weekend left at Miners Alley Playhouse, the compelling, breathtaking play, Fiction, by Steven Dietz mesmerizes under the perceptive direction of Richard H. Pegg and the gripping talent of Rhonda Brown, Thomas Borrillo and Kate Avallone.

Paul Borrillo, Kate Avallone and Rhonda Brown in Miner Alley's production of Fiction

Having seen Brown and Borrillo in several productions, the characters of Fiction, Linda and Michael Waterman carry these two accomplished actors into the stars.

Fiction explores the reality of truth and fiction: what the mind chooses to remember, wants to remember, wishes it had the power to remember verses the hard cold truth of what actually happened. It makes one wonder if there is such a thing as hard, cold truth? Everyone wants a little pizzaz rippling through his or her life. journals are a perfect medium to insert class and crass into what may appear as hum drum lives.

Not that Linda and Michael live hum drum lives. Not by a long shot. Both highly successful writers, masters of word juggling and verbiage sword teasing, they met in a Paris cafe arguing over the best rock song ever written. Their swords polished and sharpened, neither concedes, neither wins. When they part, Michael wishes to see her again.

20 years later, married, the two feast on their intellectual sparring. Only now a sober moment takes control of their lives. Linda, diagnosed with terminal cancer, has been told she has three weeks to live. Both have kept journals, and she requests that Michael read her's after she is gone. A second thought intertwines, and Linda concludes if Michael is going to read her journals, she should have the right to read his. Reluctantly, he agrees.

Captivated in both journals are the juices of forbidden fruit. Coping with the anticipated loss of a magical loved one, is one thing. (I just learned of the death of a friend from Junior High school days who passed away last night. She and her husband started dating in Junior High). Funny how memories flirt with fact and fiction.

Paul Borrillo and Rhonda Brown in Miners Alley's production of Fiction

Looking at Dietz's highly evolved couple takes on a different dimension, which is exactly what Brown and Borrillo give to the play. In an intimate theatre such as Miners Alley, the up close and personal turmoil Linda and Michael find themselves coping with are brought to heavy light through movement and expression. Brown and Borrillo have so engulfed themselves into the lives of the two characters, you feel their thoughts before they speak. Their confusion, confrontation, separating truth from fiction ripples through your soul. Every flick of an eyebrow, every gulp of air, every shrug of a shoulder, no matter, how slight sends shudders to the very core of our being. A couple who built their relationship on honesty and confrontation, now find their toughest test standing in front of them begging for attention.

How does Michael convince Linda, the relationship between he and Abby so artistically described in his journal is pure fantasy, an innocent moment of enraptured ecstasy? The world of fiction and truth collide in lightening collected confrontation. Then there's the matter of Linda's mis-diagnosis, coming face to face with the real Abby, and facing what's ahead whether it be truth or fiction, or perhaps a combination of both.

Michael R. Duran's astonishing ability to dress a set in perfect harmony with the stage and nature of the play, encompasses Miners Alley. For Fiction he offers subtle suggestions making one believe the characters are where they are suppose to be. In the beginning you believe they are in a Paris Cafe. You can almost smell the Parisian food. At home, you sense Linda and Michael's creative spirit. Through Linda's thoughts, you sense the writer's conference atmosphere where Michael meets Abby, a staff person for the retreat. Borrillo reflects the isolation every writer knows firsthand. Why not picture a little color in the purposefully drab room where he is supposed to be writing? Why not fantasize an orchestrated animation to close the gaps? What harm? Are his private thoughts not sacred?

Karalyn Star Pytel designed the lighting that nearly becomes a member of the cast as it flits through the varied emotions expressed and suppressed.

Dietz moves through time and space with "intrigue-ful" ease, Duran's set allows for the intrigue without question as Linda and Michael scan their imaginations. They know each other so well, a line in the journals becomes a full-blown thought process.

Michael met Abby at a writer's retreat. His time alone, breaking through a writer's block, and contact with Abby fosters imagination sending him into an "ecstasied" world of triumph. It's a secret, and raises the question as to whether one should/should not keep secrets even within the most intimate relationships. What's worse? Dying with a secret or living with one?

When Abby chooses to meet Linda, Linda's body becomes rigid. Why did Abby want to meet her? What will she hear? What will be able to believe? Why has Michael continued his relationship with this person? Taunt and stiff, you can almost read her tumbling thoughts. Linda's eyes through Brown speak volumes.

Linda's novel, At the Cape, set in South Africa, comes into play. How much of it comes from sheer imagination? How much of it comes from real experience? Borrillo's intense interpretation of Michael sends chills down the spine. He is being accused. What about Linda?

As Michael recaptures Linda's novel, a young woman stands at the brink of South Africa, called False Bay searching the horizon. Someone has told her, the light she sees beyond the horizon is where the two worlds collide. Pegg intent upon accuracy with his directorial interpretation traveled to False Point to see this mythical line. Did he see it? Was it fiction or reality? Does it matter? He went to absorb Dietz's intent, and absorb it he did.

So many questions ted together with brilliant repartee.

It would be unfair to reveal the entire plot. It needs to be experienced. Laced with quiet humor, their questions becomes real questions, which is definitely what Dietz is all about.

Fiction earns itself the status of becoming one of the most beautifully produced, and acted productions Miners Alley has presented, and there have been several. Dietz's writing, Pegg's initially induced imagination, and Brown, Borrillo, and Avallone's ingenious perception into the characters teases one's imagination, one's evaluation, one's thought process to muse and wonder over one's sense of reality. Behind it lies a smile of gratitude for what is, what could be, and why not?

Easter weekend is a grand time for its final presentation. Not to be missed; not soon to be forgotten.

Fiction
By Steven Dietz; Directed by Richard H. Pegg