Review: HANG at Burbage Theatre Company

We’re all familiar with the saying, “Less is more,” and that statement especially holds true for Debbie Tucker Green’s intense drama, ‘hang,’ (deliberately spelled with lowercase letters) now at Burbage Theatre Company, in partnership with WomensWork Theatre Collaborative—because the less you know, the better, as intended by the playwright.

This much is clear—a woman and a man dressed in business attire escort another woman into a room, much like any office space complete with a table, chairs and a water bubbler. We never learn their names—the presumed professionals or agents are known as One (Margaret Melozzi) and Two (Aaron Morris), and the evidently reluctant visitor is Three (MJ Daly). One and Two are preoccupied with making sure Three is comfortable—they’ve all met before—and their endless attempts to lessen the obvious tension, like offering her water and making small talk, are in vain.

And so the conversation begins…and turns. The audience learns that Three and her family were victims of something horrific, so much so that her hands still continue to shake three years after the incident, and the perpetrator is a client represented by an agency that employs One and Two. As for the unfortunate episode that Three managed to survive, and who exactly One and Two are working for—well, the playwright chooses to be vague on those fronts. Most importantly, Three has to make a choice, while One and Two anxiously await her decision.

Throughout most of the 80-minute running time, the atmosphere is breathtakingly ominous and the interplay is awkward and cringeworthy. Three delivers a series of heated albeit darkly poetic tirades that profoundly convey her continuous suffering, yet One and Two maintain their stoic, transactional disposition, acknowledging her trauma yet unapologetically determined to accomplish the task at hand.

Ultimately, ‘hang’ is an actor’s piece, and while the script is compelling, the strength of this production is in its performances, and all three are exceptional. Morris is magnificent as the consummate foot solider, Two, dutifully spouting facts and figures when asked, yet seemingly nervous and uncomfortable. Melozzi is superb as the more experienced One, who diligently behaves personably and tries to appear sensitive while continually toeing the line.

Daly’s heartbreaking portrayal of Three is nothing short of masterful. Her understandable anger is mired in a state of fear and helplessness that nothing can remedy, despite the convoluted efforts of One and Two. Her character doesn’t say anything at first, yet her pain is palpable, and when she does speak, every sentence drips with anguish and mistrust.

Lynne Collinson directs this impressive trio with painstaking precision and careful attention to the dialogue, where the characters repeatedly interrupt or talk over each other with purpose and stop in the middle of a sentence or thought, for fear of having revealed too much.

The play is certainly thought-provoking and raises several intriguing issues or questions, well worthy of conversation and debate. I would argue that the script demands too much from the audience—despite being a relatively short play, we are kept in the dark for perhaps longer than necessary—but any shortcomings I may have had with the plot (or lack thereof) are easily rectified by the superlative performances.

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