Celia Schaefer, Timothy Deenihan, and Danielle SkraastadTomorrow in the Battle, at Stageworks/Hudson, is an excellent and challenging work about three British professionals: Jennifer, a sexy female financier about to get swallowed up by the collapse of the banking industry; Anna, a defense minister about to lie to Parliament about the cost of updating its Trident nuclear defense system; and her husband Simon, a heart surgeon having a mid-life crisis who lets himself get smashed right before a pivotal heart-transplant operation. Although Anna has an active fanstasy life that includes encounters with one of Simon’s colleagues, both women love the surgeon mightily; Jennifer is having an affair with him and takes a sudden break-up badly. None of the three ever actually talks to each other; rather, they deliver monologues in a standing position even as the things they are monologizing about are actually happening. (I think this is what is called an alienation device but it reminded me more of a triphonic epispode of NPR's Selected Shorts; I kept anticipating Isaiah Sheffer to step out of the wings and announce next week’s show.)
The set, designed by Randall Parsons, turns the stage into a deep and narrow antechamber with criss-crossing elevated beams for the actors to stand on, each of which is too narrow for any two to share. It's a perfectly discomfiting visual device for this work, which is one of those tales of modern Britain in which everyday super-successful professionals have lost, are losing, or are battling mightily to try not to lose their souls. One does long for the excitement of some direct interaction among the characters, but the play, vividly well acted by an amusing Danielle Skraastad (Jennifer), Timothy Deenihan (Simon), and Celia Schaefer (Anna) is a superb piece of writing and deeply satisfying to have absorbed during its 90-minute duration. Author Kieron Barry has won numerous awards, including three from the Peggy Ramsay Foundation alone (in case you were wondering, the late Ramsay was the legendary literary agent who discovered Joe Orton; she was played by Vanessa Redgrave in the movie Prick Up Your Ears and was Tennessee Williams' agent as well). From the evidence of Tomorrow in the Battle, Barry probably deserved each and every one; he’s a very good writer indeed, someone who not only manages to explicate – and, yes, dramatize – with deeply etched descriptiveness, but who can do it all with one hand tied behind his back. Director Laura Margolis (also the founder and artistic director of Stageworks) keeps everything focused and moving at an impeccable clip, very helpful when the characters never actually talk to each other. My mind tingled when I left the theater. – Scott BaldingerTomorrow in the Battle at Stageworks/ HudsonBy Kieron Barry Starrring Danielle Skraastad, Celia Scheffer, Timothy Deenihan Directed by Laura Margolis Now through September 2
