Collected Stories by Donald
Margulies
MTC presents Northside Theatre
Company at Fairfax Studio until 30
September
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
To see two charismatic
performers on stage together is theatrical bliss. Ruth Cracknell and Sarah
Norris are such a duo in Collected Stories by Donald Margulies.
Margulies' play is also a winner. In a naturalistic style, the US
playwright creates a spring-autumn relationship between two women, both fiction
writers, both spirited, wilful, sensitive and volatile.
Lisa Morrison (Norris) is a clever but dizzy post-graduate student of
Prof. Ruth Steiner, (Cracknell) a short story writer of some renown. During
1993, in a state of anxiety about meeting
her heroine, the wide-eyed Lisa visits Ruth's Greenwich Village apartment for a
private writing tutorial.
So begins a seen year friendship which begins as a mentor-student
relationship but blossoms into a friendship between equals when Lisa publishes
her collected stories.
However, love of any kind can be a bumpy ride. Writers are sensitive and
sensitised. They also have a nose for a good yarn and are inclined to plunder
not only their own lives but those of friends and family for material.
When Lisa uses in her novel, Ruth's confidential anecdotes about her youthful love affair with the poet,
Delmore Schwartz, Ruth sees it as a betrayal, Lisa as a homage.
Margulies captures the heightened experience of the writer and the
delicacy of feeling that accompanies the writing process. Even in her ailing
winter years, Ruth feels wounded and jealous of her protege. Writers are the
repository of human feeling. They give a voice to the world.
Margulies writes brisk, witty dialogue that exposes and expands his two
characters. Their burgeoning friendship is fascinating and its impending doom
rivetting.
Both performances are potent and delightful. Cracknell is stately, recalcitrant and
lovable as the intellectual mentor. Her presence, as always, is commanding and
she brings a fine sense of irony to the character.
Norris sparkles in early scenes as the exuberant, nervous and cat-like
Lisa. She gives a convincing portrayal of a young woman maturing over years.
Director, Jennifer Hagan, focuses on the intimacy and intensity of these
two women. She sets the action in Wendy Osmond's realistic apartment which is
stacked with books. Sarah de Jong's evocative music highlights the relationship
and provides a subtle background of the streets of New York.
By Kate Herbert
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