Review: Mad Horse Theatre Stages New Play by Maine Playwright

Mad Horse Theatre company has mounted a full production of Brent Askari's savvy, subtle, sometimes serious comedy, Digby's Home as its third main stage production of the 2015-2016 season, having first been introduced the work to Portland audience's at the company's BY LOCAL series.

The play, which chronicles the return to a small New England town of Digby Preston, a maladroit middle-aged man who has pursued his dreams of being a comedian in Los Angeles, and now comes back for a family visit hoping to repair family relationships and rediscover his place in his hometown. Digby's odyssey proves to be one subtle disappointment after another, and he soon finds the journey may actually be more meaningful than the homecoming, but his stay is not without some resolution.

Askari masterfully creates six extremely well-etched characters, who garner and hold our sympathy. His ear for completely believable dialogue among these touchingly human people is all-too-familiar, and indeed, a good part of the play's appeal, is the cumulative effect of recognition and identification between audience and actors. The tensions built slowly and steadily, and Askari reveals his skill at shading the layers of humor and sadness, as well as managing with great economy to impart substantial depth.

Christine Louise Marshall directs the cast with a deft hand, using the intimacy of the space to elicit subtle details in the performances, and balancing the pace between the quiet boredom of the small town and the escalating inner drama of the characters. Her set design, which consists of several units of cleverly crafted, multi-purpose scenery, ably services the script, as do Anna Halloran's simple but apt costumes and Saskia Giramma's fine lighting design. Jake Cote supplies the soundscape which helps maintain the flow through the slightly longish scene changes.

The sense of timing and rapport among the cast members is spot-on. Christopher Price makes a pitch-perfect Milton Preston, his prickly bluntness and rough-edged disaffectedness masking inner disappointments and emotions he finds hard to express. As his daughter Sally, Marie Stewart Harmon is both vulnerable and biting, a lost little girl struggling to find herself. Christopher Holt succeeds in the difficult task of making the protagonist Digby Preston appear so completely ordinary and yet so entirely compelling. His quiet groping for approval and his restrained, but all present pain are touchingly conveyed.

The supporting trio of characters each limns memorable portraits. David Butler as Don Warner, Sally's much older lover, manages to capture both the cluelessness and the essential decency of the man. Lisa Boucher Hartman plays Digby's one-time girlfriend, the feisty, independent Jen Cummngs, who still harbors dreams- albeit in a limited way - a credible and sympathetic figure. And the most raucous comedy is assigned to Nick Schroeder who plays Jen's red-neck, bullying, jock boyfriend Hal Richards with show-stealing swagger and hilarious dimness.

Mad Horse has always been home to adventurous theatre, and as they have done in the past, has championed new playwrights and works. Askari's Digby's Home is another feather in the company's cap!

Photos Courtesy of Mad Horse Theatre, Craig Robinson, photographer.

Digby's Home runs from March 24-April 10, 2016, at Mad Horse Theatre, 24 Mosher Street, South Portland, ME 207-747-4148 www.madhorse

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