A Lie of the Mind

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

Poignant, cutting to the bone, Paragon Theatre's production of Sam Shepard's play A Lie of the Mind finds a snug home with an awesome cast, and director Jarrod Holbrook.

Holbrook is fast becoming one of Denver's more insightful, astute directors. Shephard is not an easy playwright to contend with. He knows how to create characters and situations that speak directly to our society. Situations that normally aren't your common dinner conversations.

William Hahn, Jim Hunt and Patty Mintz Figel in Paragon Theater's Lie of the Mind

In A Lie of the Mind, he zeros in on how everyone has a different perspective on the same events. The human animal tends to want to justify, explain, actions and reactions to the same events. Anger wants a reason to exist. Hurt wants to find an excuse and focus on blame. Confusion wants to find a place to hide in peace shutting out the chaotic world swirling around.

Two families brought together by a marriage that other members of the family seem to want to forget. The play opens in the dark with a phone call between two brothers.

Hysterical, Jake (Tom Borrillo) calls his brother Frankie (James O'Hagan-Murphy). There has been a terrible accident, and Jake needs Frankie's help.

When the lights come up, we are taken to a hospital room in Salt Lake City. Beth (Emily Patton Davies) lies in bed badly beaten. Her face swollen and eyes blackened. Frozen in fear, she recoils at her brother's touch. Mike, (William Hahn) wants to comfort her without knowing how. Beth struggles to understand she is safe. She wants to stand, can't without help, but cringes if Mike tries to help her. She has been beaten so badly, she now suffers from brain damage.

Jake thinks Beth is dead, and has crumbled into a ball of fear, shame and confusion.

Warren Sherrill, Producer and Scenic designer divided the stage. Stage right becomes a motel in Southern Utah, and Lorraine's (Edith Weiss) home in rural California. Lorraine is Jake's protective mother. Weiss, known for her strong comedic appeal and penchant for writing delightful children's plays, breaks the heart with Lorraine's staunch protective nature for her mentally confused son. Excises come easy for her. Stage left features Meg (Patty Mintz Figel) and Baylor's (Jim Hunt) rural home outside Billings, Montana. Meg and Baylor are Beth's parents. A play in two acts, it sifts back and forth between the two families giving insight into the lives of each one.

Baylor's anger torments himself and his family. Meg compensates by hiding behind a façade of bright sunlight and chirping birds. She wants to do everything for Beth. Baylor wants her to leave Beth alone so she can do for herself. The angry outbursts make the blood run cold. Mike feels the frustration running through his family.

Patton Davies's performance takes the breath away. Unless you know it's her, you wouldn't recognize her. It takes expertise to take a beautiful actress and turn her into a blank injured victim struggling to find a world she can relate to.

Murphy's Freddie gives expression to frustration of his own not quite knowing what to do with Jake, not quite knowing how to relate to his mother who lives in a concocted world wanting to protect and excuse Jake.

James O'Hagan-Murphy in Paragon Theater's Lie of the Mind

Borrillo's performance takes away whatever breath is left after Davies knocks it out.

All of the performances are A-1 plus, and then some.

O'Hagan-Murphy gives one of the finest performances witnessed to date. His expressions reflect the conflict of inner thoughts. You can read him before he even speaks.

Weiss's motherly nature for Lorraine fluctuates between wanting to grab her by the shoulders and make her open her eyes to see whom Jake is and what he has become. Figel's attentiveness to Meg for Beth and coping with her husband's ferocious anger makes you want to slap her across the face to wake her up. Then again, if she wakes from her dream world, how could she continue to live with such an angry man? Hunt becomes absorbed in a father's anger over what has happened to Beth, and frustration over his own life. He orders Meg around as though she is his god-given servant. His body old, worn, and tired screams with its own aches. He can't take his own boots off. No matter what he wants from Meg, she has to take off his boots right this second.

Wanting the truth, Freddie travels to Billings to find out what really happened to Beth. A hunter, Baylor accidently shoots Freddie in the leg, where out of guilt is cared for on the family sofa. Knowing Freddie is Jake's brother sets Mike into frenzy. If they are going to care for Freddie, he refuses to stay there.

In transference and wanting to care for Freddie, she falls in love with him believing they are soul mates. Freddie, eager to get home to let Jake know that Beth is still very much alive, he is well aware he isn't really welcome and yet because of his leg, he can't move. An awkward, fretful moment in time felt throughout the entire theatre.

As humor always plays a part in tragic moments, Beth removes her shirt to tie around Freddie's leg. Begging her to put her shirt back on, Beth refuses. This doesn't make sense to her. His leg needs her shirt. The reasons why strike home when Baylor enters the room to find Beth making a move on the helpless Freddie. Of course, it is Freddie who gets the brunt of Baylor's outrage.

A man is spotted staking out the house. Mike snares him and brings him inside literally by the nape of the neck. It's Jake, who with the help of Freddie, managed to escape Lorraine's grasp.

Lost in his own world Jake wants desperately to understand what had happened and why.

It's a shuddering awkward moment as everyone struggles to make sense out of this horrific event. With spousal abuse on the rise, the ponderings and wonderment undoubtedly take on an all too familiar sense. Spousal abuse is so difficult to comprehend no matter how the pie is sliced.

After Jake leaves, Sally, his sister, (wonderfully played by Carolyn Valentine, finds Lorraine in Jake's bed refusing to get up, refusing to eat. A fretful conversation ensues over her father. Lorraine fights to avoid hearing the truth about her husband and the truth about Jake. Sally has had enough of the pretenseful lies.

Jen Orf's perceptive lighting design reflects the varied emotions and is almost as jarring as the performances.

Emily Patton Davies and William Hahn in Paragon Theater's Lie of the Mind

During Act I, the low hum of the air conditioner tended to drown out some of the words. Fortunately, it was turned off for Act II. However, what the low hum did mostly was to emphasize the precise expressions. So wonderfully characterized Shepard's dialogue was hardly necessary. Eyes speak volumes when employed from an artistic point of view.

Each person interprets the situation from his or her own emotional state of mind. They play out in a discordant orchestration from anger, protectiveness, fear, confusion, awareness, and frustration. Between scenes, music in discord speaks directly to the action wielding its way only feet from the audience. Tied closely together as family, each one struggles in their own make believe world wanting to know who they are, why they are, an how did they get into this horrific situation.

Brynn Starr Coplan's eye for the appropriate 1980 outfits defines the characters.

For its provocative tantalizing subject matter, for its rich interpretation, for its stunning performances, A Lie of the Mind not only wants to be seen, it wants to be thought about, and discussed. It wants to become a part of us. It wants to be remembered. For these wantings, it will be, which is what Paragon does best, and Shephard desperately hopes for.

Tom Borrillo and James O'Hagan-Murphy in Paragon Theater's Lie of the Mind

A Lie of the Mind opened on Broadway in 1985 directed by Shephard himself. In 1986 it garnered the Drama Desk for Outstanding Play; the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play; the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best-Off Broadway Play, and in 2010 was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding revival.

However, I will bet anyone's doughnuts that Paragon's production stands head and shoulders side by side with any production. I cannot fathom a more honest deliberate interpretation than exists right here. It's obvious confusion and scratching to make some kind of sense out of torn apart families and shattered lives is a part of us. Shephard knows how to hit the nail on the head, as does Paragon. Not to be missed for breathtaking performances, stunning direction, and human insights.

A Lie of the Mind
By Sam Shephard; Directed by Jarrod Holbrook