BWW Reviews: Valerie Hart's RISING & FALLING premieres for Rhubarb Theater

Funny how the passage of time changes as you get older: When you're a child ten years almost seems like a lifetime, but when you're a grown-up ten years can seem as short as a week or, sometimes, even a day. How many among us can recall vividly the events that took place on September 11, 2001? That was when terrorists struck on American soil, killing more than 3,000 people in an attack on the Pentagon, in a failed attempt to strike the heart of the nation's capital and, of course, at New York's World Trade Center.

Can you remember where you were on 9/11? That question has been - and will continue to be - on the minds of people the world over with the tenth anniversary mere weeks away. And thanks to playwright Valerie Hart who, in an earnest attempt to bring the events of 9/11 into sharper focus, has created a provocative new play - Rising & Falling - that offers a unique perspective on the world-changing events of that early fall day ten years ago that remain so fresh in our minds that it could indeed have happened only last week.

Directed by Trish Crist in a confidently acted  and well-paced production from Rhubarb Theater Company at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater, Rising & Falling offers a fictionalized account of a controversy that swirled among members of the public and throughout the tony New York City art world about an artist's attempt to come to terms with the tragedy of 9/11 through the creation of a work of art depicting a woman falling from one of the WTC towers. In Hart's script, the artist is a resident of Nashville who, like so many of us, was privy to the horrors of 9/11 through television coverage of the events as they unfolded on-screen.

Covering a multi-year period in the lives of the artist and the survivors of 9/11, Rising & Falling looks at the continuing impact of the tragedy as the world struggled to understand how and why it all happened, focusing on the highly personal turmoil experienced by the artist (played with conviction and believability by Phil Brady); Claudia (Wesley Paine, adding another impressive performance to her already laudable resume), the mother of a young woman named Ellen, who perished in the twin towers, who considers her dead daughter to be the artist's muse and who sees in his sculpture the very face of her beloved daughter; and a New York City ironworker (movingly portrayed by Chaz Howard), whose very faith in himself and in the world at large was shattered by the events of 9/11.

It's very serious stuff covered in the 90 minutes of Rising & Falling and it is, thankfully, leavened by some much-needed humor to make the subject matter more accessible and more palatable for audiences. Filled with symbolism - Hart interjects tales of the much-earlier sacrifices of young women for the greater good of the societies in which they lived to suggest historical context for the death of Ellen - that is somewhat off-putting, but which ultimately resonates more significantly thanks to the superb performances of Kristin McCalley (who brings both Ellen and the controversial sculpture to life), Maggie Pitt (who plays Iphigenia, the daughter of Agammemnon) and Elizabeth Walsh (as Yde, a prehistoric Norse girl, whose remains were found virtually mummified in a bog).

Dan Millard and Clay Hillwig complete director Trish Crist's impressive cast, handling their various characters with grace and wit, providing some of the play's lighter moments, particularly in their reenactment of a pretentious radio program called "Art Talk," in which the controversial sculpture is dissected.

Attempting to present a discussion of the importance of public art - and who gets to decide what art the public will see and how an artist's personal visual aesthetic affects public discourse - Hart does a good job of stating her case, but there's a dearth of information or conversation about the other side's view of the so-called controversy at the heart of Rising & Falling. Clearly, the playwright's opinion is the one that matters since she's the one writing the words being spoken onstage, but Rising & Falling would be more compelling if audiences were given the opportunity to hear both sides of the story. As a result, Rising & Falling often comes across as too overwrought, too didactic to be embraced wholeheartedly by audiences.

Crist's direction is sharp and focused throughout and she gracefully crafts the many scene transitions to create a nice flow of the play's action. Her simple, but effective, set offers a multi-purpose backdrop upon which the actors portray the characters and events in Hart's play. Shane Caudill's extraordinary lighting design might be the true star of this production, evocatively capturing the moments represented in the play and expertly focusing attention where it needs to be.

Rising & Falling. By Valerie Hart. Directed by Trish Crist. Presented by Rhubarb Theater Company at Darkhorse Theater, Nashville. Through August 20.

 

 

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