Duality

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It ought to be a truism that playwrights should not direct their own plays in their first productions as a second pair of eyes and ears is necessary the first time around. This has proven true with new work from Edward Albee to John Patrick Shanley. Most of the problems with Anthony M. Laura’s new play Duality might have been solved had someone else been piloting the transition from page to stage.

If one did not read Laura’s extensive program notes in the Playbill given out at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres, it would not be until three quarters of the way through that the play’s real theme becomes clear. In addition, the family tree is so complicated that the script uses two pages and lists almost as many off-stage characters as appear in the play. Of course, this is not available to audience members or to critics before they see the production.

Ostensibly, the play is about Camilla planning a 75^th birthday party for her grandmother Tabitha which brings back memories she has long been suppressing. In flashbacks, we travel back to when she was 15 and had a crush on Sandrine, a high school classmate. In the present she hires Emilia a singer, to entertain at the party and finds that she looks remarkably like Sandrine from 20 years ago. Lucy, a homeless 21-year-old, crawls in the window but Camilla who finds she likes the company allows her to stay and help out with the party preparations. Aunt Stella (actually Camilla’s great aunt as she is her grandmother’s sister) comes by to help out and introduces voluble, exuberant Cousin Eloise, age 19, daughter of her sister Mary who lives in Oregon, who Camilla has never met before.

Another visitor is 15-year-old Regan, the ward of Camilla’s childless sister Celeste, whose mother Delia who died two years ago was Celeste’s best friend. (It is revealed that Regan has gotten pregnant knowingly as she wants a child she plans on bringing up on her own.) We also discover that Celeste is grieving over the departure of her wife Cora who has packed all her things and moved out the day before, and their other sister Sadie who has not visited in 12 years is due in from London for the party.

If you are wondering why Caroline Ghosn’s acting is so stilted and wooden as Camilla, we find out near the end of the play that she has never gotten over the trauma of a sexual assault at age 15 (by her great Uncle Jared but that is only listed in the script) and she has been alone most of her life. Eventually her attraction to Sandrine and Emilia makes it clear that she has lesbian desires that she appears never to have acted on and has led a very solitary life. Aunt Stella it turns out is still mourning the death of her partner Vera, while her sister Tabitha (Camilla’s grandmother) had recently been released from a mental hospital and is under the impression that she is to marry Prince William.

In fact, all of the acting is rather awkward with such long pauses between the lines of dialogue that it almost seems that the actors have forgotten what they are to say next. Another bit of awkwardness is that Camilla never seems to lock her door in Kensington, Brooklyn, so that all the characters enter unannounced which is hardly credible in today’s urban world. Although Camilla, Celeste and Sadie are sisters, they did not all have the same father, their mother Julia who died in 2014 having remarried Colin, while Randall, the father of Camilla and Sadie, has passed away and left the house in Kensington to them three years before. With Mary, Julia, Cora, Vera, and Delia referred to but not present in the play, and Randall and Colin not mentioned, it is rather difficult to follow without a family tree. And when Sadie arrives from London, it appears that she underwent the same fate as Camilla as a child but she has suffered in silence since age ten.

The names of the characters are rather unfortunate as most of them are permanently associated with other literary properties: Stella (A Streetcar Named Desire), Tabitha (Bewitched), Sadie (Funny Girl), Regan (King Lear) and Eloise (Kay Thompson’s iconic heroine). In addition, the fact that Tabitha thinks she is to marry Prince William is ironic as Camilla is the name of his stepmother, the Queen Consort. Aside from the cast being all female, it is not entirely believable that sisters Camilla and Celeste as well as their Aunt Stella should all turn out to be lesbian, a sexual orientation which is not hereditary.

The set by Curtis Howard and the costumes by Maya S. Lake are all in black and white. The script tells us that this is to reflect the lack of color in Camilla’s life but it is doubtful that most members of the audience will get this, although Camilla’s depression is quite obvious from the beginning. The projections by Dylan Marshall for the flashbacks as well as Camilla’s thoughts seen on the wall are more distracting than helpful. The title “Duality” is never explained, but as all of the characters seem to be living two lives as well as having hidden secrets, it is appropriate on some level.

Duality (through December 21, 2024)

Face to Face Presents

Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres, 502 W. 53^rd Street, at Tenth Avenue, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.dualitytheplay.com

Running time: two hours and 45 minutes including one intermission