“Two Rooms†is a play that had a lot of good intentions. Playwright Lee Blessing gives a fair account of the politics behind the conflict between America and the Middle East. There is no hate mongering here. Nonetheless, he gives us a sobering and bleak vision of those in power. He makes it clear that the powerful see the world more like a chessboard and people as pawns, rather than human beings.
Blessing leaves us with the understanding that for the most part, the average individual is helpless when caught in their power play. Blessing hammers this point for the majority of the play. The audience is left wondering if there is anything else shaping this world but forces ruled by some perverse vision of survival of the fittest.
Unfortunately for Blessing, this is not what he intended for his play and audience.
In “Two Rooms,†a young wife (Lainie) fights to get back her husband (Michael) who has been kidnapped by terrorists in Beirut. Both the Government (represented by the character of Ellen) and the press (Justin Hoch) offer their help and advice. Sadly, there is no question their offers of support are motivated by their own agendas.
In the case of Walker, he hopes to get an exclusive from Lainie that could land him a Pulitzer. As for Ellen, she wants Lainie to keep quiet and let the people in power handle the problem. With no one to offer her any real solace, Lainie clears out Michael’s home office of all its furniture. She draws down all the window shades and sits alone on a mat. She knows he is somewhere sitting on a floor in an isolated room. Thus, the only thing she can do to be close to him and show her loyalty is to go through the isolation with him.
Michael sits in the far left side of the stage. He is blindfolded and handcuffed. His clothes are tattered and dirt stained. Alexandra Hellquist, who plays Lainie, sits only a few feet away from him. Walker’s minimalist approach works well here. He could have used a screen to indicate two rooms, but that would have come off heavy handed- it adds to the poignancy of what the characters are experiencing. It emphasizes their longing for each other. Lainie is constantly reaching out her arms towards Michael’s direction. Michael is always positioned as if looking straight at her when he talks to her. Like the young maidens and youths on Keats’ Grecian Urn, they reach out for each other.
In their isolated rooms, Michael and Lainie pretend to communicate with each other. As he describes his painful ordeal, he digresses several times and describes happier times with Lainie. He remembers her toes when she was on the beach, and how he proposed to her. Logan Keeler does a brilliant job at capturing the love his character feels for his wife. His acting skills shine through in his ability to seamlessly move between two disparate emotions. He can easily conjure up the joy his character feels when talking about his wife, but just as convincingly convey despair when it is called for in the next few lines.
The rest of the cast, Lila Smith (Ellen) and Justin Hoch (Walker Harris) don’t have enough of an opportunity to show off their acting abilities. Their characters are caricatures. They are only there to convey Blessing’s message that both the Government and Press are corrupt.
It’s only when Laine and Michael talk to each other in their imaginary worlds that the play picks up in energy. It is a shame that it is jarringly interrupted by Ellen, Walker, or both. Hoch and Smith do their best with the material they have, but it’s Blessing who is unclear about what exactly he wants to say through his play. In fact, the play could have easily worked without the characters of Ellen and Walker. Their dialogues could have been easily worked into the conversations between Lainie and Michael.
It is clear Blessing does not intend a cynical message for his audience. His play surges with energy when Blessing focuses on the love between his two main characters. The dialogue eventually becomes richer and beautiful. That’s where the best of him comes through. And that’s what he wants to tell us- is the best of humanity. However, he does not devote enough time to it.
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