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Regional Reviews: New Jersey Tar Beach: Looking Back and Searching for the Light Also see Bob's reviews of Rapture, Blister, Burn, Lost in History and Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like Mine
Reenie's big sister Mary Claire and her friend Mary Frances, both 16 years old, are smoking and sunbathing up on "Tar Beach," the roof of the Dolan's row house. Each is telling her parents that she will be sleeping over at the other's house. Actually, both girls are planning to surreptitiously go to Rockaway Beach where they intend to "get high" and have sex with boyfriends under the boardwalk. Reenie is a sensitive, bright girl who knows Greek mythology and has designed a doozy of a Medusa head for a school project of which she is quite proud. A conversation between Claire and Frances establishes that she is also more physically attractive to the neighborhood boys than they are. Reenie's alcoholic, desperately unhappy, always feuding parents Roger and Brigit treat their daughters miserably, and Claire is nasty to Reenie. Roger, who has been laid off from his trucker-warehouseman job, insists that Claire take Reenie with her. Claire convinces Reenie to go with them to Rockaway Beach. Before she can answer Reenie's question, "Just what do you do under the boardwalk?," a brawl breaks out between their parents. On their way to the beach, Reenie pairs off with a boy about whom she begins to spin a romantic fantasy in her head. At this point, the massive blackout occurs, setting off a night of looting and anarchy. When Claire comes home alone, and no one knows where the missing Reenie is, all hell breaks loose as Roger rushes out to try to find her. Promisingly, Reenie's opening monologue as performed by Emmanuelle Nadeau and directed by Cheryl Katz has a poetic, wispy feel that brings Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie to mind. However, in short order, the sense of a lack of authenticity undermines Tar Beach. Although it is not demonstrated in her stage persona, Reenie is so alien to her family and environment that she might as well have arrived on a spaceship from Mars. Furthermore, the behaviors and relationship of her parents are so unbearably hateful and toxic that it would be impossible for this family to have lived together for more than a month without mayhem, murder, or mental breakdown. Thus, the play leaves us without believable situations, relatable characters or any sense of reality. Ryan appears to come from a place that is too far removed from this family for her to be able to breathe realistic life into it. After Reenie's dreadful blackout night experience, Claire not only assumes a new caring attitude toward her, but shows intelligence, book knowledge, and sensitivity which belie the existence of the Claire we have come to know. Roger displays a touch of poetry which is unconvincing. In a climactic scene, Reenie's memory of a moment when Roger showed feeling and concern for her triggers a transcendent glow in her. My initial response was to think that such moments could never compensate for the terrors which he is visiting upon her. However, in retrospect, if Reenie were to place the blame for Roger's dysfunctional behavior squarely on Brigit, then it is conceivable that she could "see" her father with new eyes. Director Cheryl Katz might improve the cohesion of Tar Beach by narrowing the gap between the dreamy manner with which Emmanuelle Nadeau delivers her monologues and the strident harshness with which Bart Shatto and Heather Benton powerfully portray Roger and Brigit, respectively. Emily Verla (Mary Claire) and Alanna Monte (Mary Frances) provide well grounded, evocative performances. Tar Beach, with its bluntly drawn, underdeveloped characters, fails to engage our emotions. Tar Beach continues performances (Evenings: Thursday 7:30 PM; Friday & Saturday 8 PM/ Matinees: Saturday (5/9 only) 3 PM: Sunday 3 PM) through May 9, 2015 at Luna Stage, 555 Valley Road, West Orange. Box Office: 973-395-5551; online: www.lunastage.org. Tar Beach by Tammy Ryan; directed by Cheryl Katz Cast Rapture, Blister, Burn by Gina Gionfriddo; directed by David Christopher
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