Not too long ago, the survival of Actors Guild of Lexington was in question, so news of the addition of a series of second-stage productions in its first full season of recovery came as a surprise.
No one would begrudge AGL a year or two focused solely on rebuilding the basics, but artistic director Eric Seale's decision to expand programming is a sign that the theater wants to do more than merely survive, not unlike the characters in Broken, the debut of its latest venture.
A one-act play written by Lexington actor and playwright Walter May, Broken features two characters from disparate worlds who, albeit in different ways, are struggling with bare-bones survival. Any meaning that their survival might have hinges on the success of their budding connection.
The play stars veteran actors Susan Wigglesworth and Tom Phillips as Anne and Cliff, strangers whose chance meeting by a park bench leads to revelations that might alter their lives.
At first, the show seems straightforward and predictable. A bag lady and a businessman have an awkwardly honest encounter that makes them face their humanity, and highlights and dissolves class barriers.
This has been done plenty before and I was prepared to go there again, but a little further into the material, it becomes obvious that, like Anne and Cliff, the show's premise is not altogether what it seems.
The bag lady turns out to be an ordinary woman who has fallen prey to alcoholism and mental illness. The businessman, who seems so polished in the opening scene with his suit, newspaper and bagged lunch he won't share, is a lonely man in a series of dead-end jobs leading a painfully empty life.
This intentional misdirection and the slow unfolding of the escalating connection is a psychological and thematic strength and elevates the production above the overdone two-people-on-a-park-bench scenario. The performances eclipsed the few minor distractions on Thursday's opening night — notably overly squeaky chairs, which will apparently soon be replaced.
It helps that May's script seems informed by his background as an actor. There is just enough structure to guide the performers on their emotional trajectories while leaving a wide enough berth for them to make bold, interpretive choices.
Wigglesworth does a particularly good job portraying Anne's recovery. At first, she is just a crackpot in the park off her meds, but she slowly begins to regain her sanity, lucidity and maybe even integrity. Her character is trying to mask the potency of her demons, belied by well-timed facial ticks, but she could reveal even more of Anne's darkness through the occasional behavioral outbursts that hint at its depth.
Phillips' character takes longer to decipher, and not until the play's dramatic, last-minute twist did I consider this a boon and not a liability. What made this guy continue to visit with Anne with so much dedication after two random encounters? Phillips conveyed Cliff's gradual awakening to his emotional paralysis and stunted grief with aplomb. But not until the play's unexpected "reveal" at the end will you feel the full impact of its poignancy, which reaches its zenith in a tenderly wrought moment when Cliff and Anne finally — and with great tentativeness and emotional delicacy — touch one another.
Kudos to director Sidney Shaw for the fragile architecture of such a moment and to AGL for taking a creative risk at a pivotal time.
