‘Between
Worlds’ should pull the plug
By
Kyle Cavaness
Online Forty Niner
Contributing Writer
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s one-act play on the otherworldly interactions
of coma patients would be better served by pulling the life-support plug at
the end of it’s run. At one point during the show, “Between Worlds” enigmatic
Dr. S tells another character, “I’m not here to judge.” Her
character was fortunate enough to be speaking to another player on the stage,
rather than of the production itself.
Translated from French, Schmitt’s play is less a study of human nature
and more “Lost in Translation.” The story follows a small cast
of characters as they wait in a hotel-like purgatory, waiting to see if they
are returned to earth or sent on to death as their earthly bodies lie in comas
in hospital beds. Though it seems to be trying to share insight on the differences
in perspective between life and death, the dialogue continually misses the
mark.
Colin, the protagonist, finds himself at the hotel at the beginning of the
story, angry and frustrated at not knowing where he is or how he got there.
As the details unfold, Colin—played with minimal emotional range by Gavin
Hawk—gains a new outlook on his life thus far, and how it almost ended
in a drunken high-speed collision with a tree.
While exploring his sparse new environment, Colin discovers two corridors—A
for accidental and D for deliberate.
When he asks Doctor S. (Shaunte Carabello), overseer of the coma patients,
why he falls under the ‘deliberate’
column, she cites his alcoholism as “the coward’s way of prolonged
suicide.”
Characters one-dimensional enough to be set pieces fill the rest of the cast.
Jessie, the cleaning woman, provides bawdy sex jokes and exposition before
making an early exit, while comic relief Magus and an angry and petulant chairman
of the board share barbs before their own stories are tied up nicely in the
end. Gary Grossman’s Magus was a standout during the show. The few laughs
elicited from the crowd came from his sarcastic and spirited performance.
Last on the scene was Laura, a disabled young plot device played by Sarah Goldblatt.
With her sweet disposition and boundless optimism, she is an obvious foil for
Colin’s cynicism, and the two fall madly, and predictably, in love with
each other.
The final section of the story comes when Magus and Dr. S are able to help
the two lovers find a way to keep their love alive, despite the impermanence
of their situation.
Though the ending seems to be a happy one, the conclusion undermines the story
that leads up to it. Magus and Dr. S seem to break the rules dividing the real
world and the hotel with ease, despite the latter stating matter-of-factly
that no such thing can ever be done several times in earlier scenes. Consequences
for her actions—one of the main themes of the story—are all but
scoffed at by Dr. S, whose stoicism throughout the story makes her change of
heart equally baffling.
“
Between Worlds””suffers from the same symptoms other fence-riders
have made in the past. By becoming trapped between two sides, it fails to make
any significant impact on either one. Also, the California Repertory Company’s
over-inflated ticket prices—$20 for general admission, $17 for students —and
unforgiving policy of turning away latecomers makes “Worlds””a
production ready to be euthanized.
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