Samuel D. Hunter—who some years back gave us an altogether remarkable play called The Whale—has come to the Rattlestick with Lewiston/Clarkson, an exceedingly special and highly unconventional theatrical event. Small in scale—like the work of a miniaturist—but major in scope, Hunter’s impressive opus features a tiny cast, working almost literally in your laps and giving massively powerful performances. Discerning playgoers will want to intrepidly trek down to Waverly Place during the six-week run.
Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington are small towns situated across the water from each other at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers (the latter of which serves as the state border). Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to map the northwest and its waterways from Illinois to the Pacific. They passed the location of present-day Lewiston and Clarkston in October 1805. The towns weren’t there at the time, of course; just vast open plains and Indian settlements. Today, Lewiston and Clarkston are typical far-flung middle-of-nowhere towns, with three golf courses and a small airport between them, along with one lone Costco.
Hunter, much of whose work has been centered in his native Idaho, is one of those MacArthur Fellowship winners (whom we have learned to no longer call “geniuses”). His conceit—and an inspired one, it turns out—has been to write two separate and individual one acts taking place in the towns across the Snake River. The plays premiered, individually, at major regional theaters: Clarkston in 2015 at Dallas Theater Center, Lewiston in 2016 at the Long Wharf in New Haven.
[Read Elysa Gardner’s ★★★★★ review here.]
In both cases, distant descendants of the famed explorers migrate to the town named in honor of their ancestor in search of—what? Purpose? A lost connection to the past? A hopeful uplift to their damaged lives? What they find is, well, a condo being built on parts of the family cattle ranch (in Lewiston) and the only Costco for hours (in Clarkston). The expansive land, majestic vistas, unlimited opportunities? Lost and vanished, although the Lewis descendant—hiking along the expedition route—suggests that if she squints and plugs her ears she can sort of imagine “what it was like.”
The two plays, otherwise, are altogether different. Marnie (Leah Karpel) returns to Lewiston—which she left at the age of eight, following her mother’s death—to farm the family homestead, only to discover that grandma Alice (Kristin Griffith) has been forced to sell off all but a sliver of land. Also on hand is Connor (Arnie Burton), grandma’s housemate but, we learn, not roommate. The two Lewis-descended women fight out the conflict, which centers mostly on the rupture caused by the behavior and death of Marnie’s mother/Alice’s daughter, with Connor helping ease them through.
Across the river, and after a twenty-minute break for a communal audience meal, we come to Clarkston. A distant Clark from Connecticut—via Bennington—arrives on his journey along the expedition trail. Jake (Noah Robbins), who like Marnie is in his early twenties, is being trained for his new job as a night shift stocker at Costco. He is seriously undersized for the physicality of the job, as is quickly noted by co-worker Chris (Edmund Donovan).
The pair quickly develop an awkward but deep bond, forged in part by the crushing circumstances of their separate lives. Jake, indeed, is not physically equipped to do his job, with Chris tenderly covering for him; Chris has his life and aspirations overwhelmed by his meth-addicted mother Trisha (Heidi Armbruster). It should be noted that in these two thoroughly separate plays, the three young adults each have or had destructive parents.
Someone—the author, director Davis McCallum, the artistic staff of the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater?—has had the inspired idea of presenting the two ninety-minute one acts together as a single-ticket attraction (as opposed to two separate admissions). The plays are separated by a twenty-minute meal break; you can order a limited-choice meal (as at the recent downtown Sweeney Todd) or bring your own. The evening lasts about three-and-a-half hours, which—thanks to the wholly new play serving as act two—works fine.
The Rattlestick has torn out their theater-seating and shrunk the capacity for this engagement to a mere 51 viewers. (Between parts, the playing space is altered and the seating reconfigured.) This makes an altogether different sort of theatergoing experience, which would be interesting enough owing to its novelty. But it turns out the plays are exceptionally insightful.
The performances brought forth from the actors by McCallum (who also staged Hunter’s The Whale, Pocatello and The Harvest) are each and every one exquisite. Although one might ascribe this, in part, to the majestic roles Hunter has created. Most astonishing, if pick we must, is Robbins as the slight visitor from Connecticut. The actor is a familiar presence, last seen here in the 2016 Master Harold… and the Boys at the Signature. (Those of us who saw the aborted Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs in 2009 well likely remember the teenaged Robbins as the young Eugene Jerome.) He acts with an intensity that is almost scary; during a particularly gripping scene between Donovan and Armbruster, you’ll likely find yourself swiveling from the action to the far end of the room to monitor Robbins’ reactions.
He is well matched by Donovan, who walks in as a stereotypical small-town boy with no future but soon displays many layers. Armbruster, with the smallest role of the evening, adds depth as she transforms from a caring-if-wayward mother into a desperate addict.
Griffith, as the grandmother in the first play, also gives a rich and resourceful performance. So does Karpel (a veteran of Hunter’s Pocatello and The Harvest) as the returning prodigal. The biggest surprise of the night is Burton as the intermediary and out-of-work butcher in Lewiston. (Burton informs us, in his bio, that his father was: a butcher from Idaho.) I would have wagered that it was impossible for Burton to walk on stage without eliciting a barrage of guffaws (as he has in Peter and the Starcatcher, The 39 Steps and The Government Inspector), even before they gave him anything to say. In this case, I thoroughly believed the character from the outset, and only realized an hour in that it was Arnie Burton.
Lewiston/Clarkston is not your typical theatrical evening, and Rattlestick has contrived something we are unlikely to see anywhere. Thanks to the excellence of the writing and all these fine performances, it offers a thoroughly special evening of theater.
Lewiston/Clarkson opened October 25, 2018, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and runs through December 16. Tickets and information: rattlestick.org
