Two Rooms at Olympia Little Theatre
by Alec Clayton
Originally published in The News Tribune
(Tacoma), June 24, 2005.
Olympia Little Theatre
vice president Michael Christopher warned the audience on opening night of
“Two Rooms” that OLT always does something a little edgy and chancy for
their last play of the season.
Written
by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize nominee Lee Blessing, “Two Rooms” is a
bleak play about an American hostage being held by Arab terrorists, and about
his wife back home in America. The OLT production is directed by Christopher,
who was also the set designer and who also helped with scenic painting, lighting
and sound.
The
two rooms of the title are the bare and windowless cubical in Beirut where the
American, Michael (Tom Sanders) is being held and Michael’s home office back
in the United States, which his wife Lanie (Erika Fiebig) has stripped bare of
all furniture as a way of symbolically making it into the cubical where he is
being held.
Christopher’s
sparse set is a runway painted a deep blue with white markings to indicate two
doors and a window, the same space standing for each of the two rooms. The
backdrop is a blank canvas upon which are projected slides of war scenes and of
actual hostages, some of which are familiar from recent newscasts. The only
props are a single floor mat and a folding chair that is brought onstage from
time to time.
Michael and Lanie engage
in imaginary conversations with one another and mentally write letters that can
never be mailed. The only other characters are Walker (Sean G. Schroeder), a
reporter, and Ellen (Marci Ballew), a State Department official. Walker
befriends Lanie as he persistently coaxes her into granting him an exclusive
interview. Ellen tries in her officious way to justify to Lanie the
government’s inaction. Walker at first projects a sincere concern for Lanie
and anger at the government for its calculated ineptitude and ineptness, but it
soon becomes apparent that all he really cares about is getting his exclusive
story. Ellen appears coolly detached and efficient as she tries to placate Lanie,
but underneath her aura of cool professionalism beats an icy cold heart. Lanie
is constantly buffeted by Walker and Ellen as she desperately clings to hope
that Michael will someday be set free.
Sanders plays the
hostage Michael with quiet dignity and strength, seldom giving expression to his
anger at his captors. Throughout the play he is handcuffed, and through most of
it he is blindfolded. His movements are restricted to sitting and lying on the
floor mat and pacing around the room. Through the simplest of movements, and
without the benefit of the audience being able to see his eyes, Sanders
expresses Michael’s patience and intelligence, and when the blindfold finally
comes off (when he, in his imagination, gets to touch his wife) his eyes tell of
his tender love for her.
Schroeder plays the
manipulative Walker with restraint. Even when expressing his anger at the
government bureaucracy his passion is held back. His words are much more
passionate than his expression. It was a little too obvious that Schroeder was
acting. When Walker railed against the government, I didn’t get the impression
that he really believed what he was saying. Was he putting on an act for
Lanie’s sake, or did the actor fail to be convincing?
Ballew’s
interpretation of Ellen’s self-discipline was faultless. She wrapped her
bureaucratic obfuscation in smarmy false sincerity.
Fiebig is mesmerizing as
Lanie. Her pain and fear and confusion is expressed in the way she holds her
open hands by her side and the nervous way she shuffles her feet. She is a coil
of contained energy ready to explode, and when she does explode – which,
believe me, she does – it is like witnessing a human nuclear meltdown.
First produced in 1988,
the hostage situation dealt with in “Two Rooms” happened before 9/11 and
even before the first war with Iraq, yet the relevance to current world events
rings true today.
It is a harsh and tragic
play definitely intended for mature adult audiences.