BWW Reviews: John Patrick Shanley's SAILOR'S SONG from Actors Bridge

Darkly comic and deathly serious - with moments of lyrical, poetic power intermingled with the jarring realities of missed opportunities and regret - John Patrick Shanley's Sailor's Song is given an artfully mounted, superbly acted and inspiringly directed production from Actors Bridge Ensemble, continuing through June 12 at Belmont University's Black Box Theatre.

Described variously as "a watercolor" or as "Fred and Ginger meet Eugene O'Neill" Sailor's Song is actually both, although it is hard to pigeonhole the play, so unique is Shanley's approach to his subject matter. Clearly, it's a dark comedy, in a very real and tangible sense, but thanks to Shanley's fondness for musicals, there's a deeper resonance for theatre goers. In fact, the playwright's idiom for Sailor's Song might best be described as another form of musical theater, in which the characters dance whenever their emotions become too overpowering for them to adequately express themselves through the mere utterance of words. In musical theater, that's when characters tend to break into song, but in Sailor's Song, those spirits are lifted, their interdependence on one another made more significant by the  expressive dancing of director Don Griffiths' extraordinarily capable cast.

Performed amid the stellar trappings of Paul Gatrell's gorgeous set design, which is beautifully illuminated by Mitch Massaro's lighting design, featuring June Kingsbury's evocative, pitch-perfect costume design and director Grffiths' sound design, Sailor's Song is impeccably produced, ensuring the audience's total involvement, seduced as they are by Shanley's tale, featuring his sharply written and clever dialogue, and acted by some of Nashville's best.

The most basic description of the plot - which, granted, sounds rather convoluted in its retelling - finds a young man named Rich venturing into a bar in a South Atlantic coastal town only to become smitten by two comely young women (the blonde and pragmatic Lucy and the brunette and ethereal Joan) who, it turns out, are sisters. Rich is in town ostensibly to offer support for his Uncle John, whose wife is dying of lung cancer, and finds himself in the bar in a desperate effort to find something fun and light to occupy his mind even for one evening. The recent events in his life have left Rich in a particularly reflective mood, as he struggles to determine who and what he wants to be. The realities of Rich's life (the impending death of an aunt and his own unfocused ways) are thrown into further disarray and made all the more confusing by the flights of fantasy that he is taken on by his infatuation with both Lucy and Joan.

Although that plot synopsis perhaps sounds heady and overly dramatic - and there are portents of that, certainly - what transpires onstage is much more appealing given Shanley's deceptively light touch and Griffith's compelling direction of the play. And there are those lovely moments, when the characters and the audience are transported to a different reality bathed in gorgeous light and set to the music of American pop standards (the show opens with "Fascination" - ideally setting the tone for what will follow), the actors dancing lightly and effortlessly to express the longing dreaminess of the character's collective psyche.

Brent Maddox, one of Nashville's finest actors (if not the best, to be honest - his range is astounding, his command of a stage is impressive and his ability to connect with his audience is staggering), plays Rich with the requisite bravado underscored by doubt and maybe even a bit of self-loathing. As Rich toys with the affections of Lucy while harboring an unyielding fascination for Joan, Maddox retains enough boyish charm to prevent his character from being mistaken for a loutish cad.

Robyn Berg, as Lucy, and Jessika Malone, as Joan, are absolute perfection in their readings of their roles - with Berg giving Lucy the necessary gravitas of the more serious big sister (she's a banker) while somehow showing us her inner turmoil, the longing for romance (stunningly expressed in her dance with Maddox to "Singin' In The Rain")  and the ultimate acceptance of her lot in life when romance once again passes her by. Malone's Joan, who may well be as crazy as her sister says, is a medium, a mystical soothsayer, a fortune-teller for the new millennium, and Malone plays her as completely attractive and winsomely charismatic, providing the perfect contrast to the rather earthbound Lucy. Kingsbury deserves major recognition for her design of costumes for Berg and Malone, which effectively captures their characters' personae.

The interaction of Maddox, Berg and Malone is exquisitely paced and imaginatively staged (particularly their scene in a rowboat), while eschewing any sense of false theatricality. Instead, the three seem very genuine, the shared intimacy of their scenes eloquently driving home the conflicting themes in Shanley's script.

Bill Feehely, cast as Rich's Uncle John, delivers yet another tour de force performance, at one moment eliciting laughter for his ribald talk and frank humor, while at the next giving a richly drawn and emotional performance as John deals with the impending death of his long-suffering wife (played by Carrie Gerow, who shares choreography credit with Alyssa Maddox), whose spirit is given the chance to soar in one of the more moving flights of choreographed fancy toward the end of the one act play.

While Sailor's Song has never gained the stature of his better known Doubt - not unexpected given this script's more surreal elements -  it nonetheless shows off Shanley's knowing use of language and character and his unerring storytelling skill. And with Griffiths' focused direction and the complete commitment of his exemplary cast and design team, Sailor's Song offers the coolly perfect counterpoint to an already steamy late spring in Nashville, which will lead to another long, hot summer in the South.

-  Sailor's Song. By John Patrick Shanley. Directed by Don Griffiths. Presented by The Actors Bridge Ensemble. At Belmont University's Black Box Theatre, through June 12. For details, visit the company website at www.actorsbridge.org.

 

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