Apparition

Of all the young up-and-coming playwrights on the scene today, I'd lay my money on Anne Washburn as one to watch most closely. Gifted with a poet's sense of language and a photographer's vision of theatre, her plays are thought-provoking, intelligent, and entertaining. Her two most recent productions, The Ladies and The Internationalist, announced her as one of the most promising new writers on the scene.

Would that her latest play, Apparition, kept that promise.

A study in scares, Apparition is a loosely connected series of vignettes and scenes that examine the causes and nature of fear. Spooky stories of haunted forests are told in melodramatic tones. Children talk in false Latin. Macbeth is analyzed, and re-analyzed, and ultimately performed with one witch too many. Demons discuss eating dogs, cats, and babies. And alas, very little of it is very scary.

It would be sad enough if the play simply failed to frighten, but Washburn does create some genuine chills. One story runs throughout the play, non-linear and disjointed, about a death in a dark room that might have been accidental... or might have been merely a dream. The fierce pounding on a solitary woman's door might have been some unimaginable monster, or a husband desperately searching for help for his injured wife. The darkness, ambiguity, and simple language of these scenes get under the skin and create a wonderfully dreadful mood, showing off Washburn's talents to their fullest extent.

The other scenes do not, and that is the true tragedy of the play. Washburn does not seem to trust her strongest material to stand on its own, and surrounds it with vague and occasionally grotesque scenes that do not frighten, or worse, entertain. Had she fleshed out the story of the mystery in the attic, even leaving it in its non-linear and ambiguous state, she could have had a fascinating and truly haunting story that would leave Poe jealous.

Les Waters' direction is equally divided, making the strong scenes stronger and the weak ones weaker. The attic story is effective and intense, while the Macbeth scenes are almost funny in their dramatic weakness. Darron L. West's moody sound effects between scenes initially heighten the mood, but, overused, become a parody of themselves, losing their effectiveness after the first fifteen minutes. Christal Weatherly's Victorian costumes are lovely to look at and brilliant in their detail, but add little to the overall atmosphere.

Jane Cox's lighting is the truest star of the production, ranging from blinding brightness to complete darkness, from warm to cold, as each scene demands. Fluorescent lights drain the color from the actors and make Andromache Chalfant's wonderful set even more desolate and lifeless. Footlights line the Connelly stage, casting long shadows and doing much to give the weak scenes some atmosphere. It is truly impressive to see such variety and range of lighting in a single production.

The five cast members, who remain essentially anonymous by lack of pictures in the programme or identification on the stage, bring some measure of vitality to Washburn's words. Maria Dizzia, Garrett Neergaard, Emily Donahoe, T. Ryder Smith, and David Andrew McMahon make the most of what they're given, and when the scenes are well-written, they are equally well performed.

For all of Apparition's weaknesses, there is enough gold in the rubble of Washburn's script to keep me convinced of her gifts and potential, and I stand by my conviction that she is one of the brightest of off-Broadway's undiscovered gems. May her next play be stronger.

Apparition runs through January 7^th at the Connelly Theatre on 4^th Street between Avenues A and B. Running time is 80 minutes with no intermission.

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