There’s much to appreciate in Will Arbery’s new play, but boy, do you have to work for it. The playwright, whose last effort Heroes of the Fourth Turning was widely acclaimed and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, doesn’t believe in spoon-feeding audiences. Much like Heroes, Corsicana, receiving its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons proves frustratingly talky and meandering. And yet the play also has a haunting quality, thanks to its deeply felt humanism and the superb performances by its talented ensemble.
Set in the titular small Texas city, the play revolves (literally, but more on that in a bit) around four emotionally scarred characters: thirtysomethings Christopher (Will Dagger) and his half-sister Ginny (Jamie Brewer), the latter with Down syndrome, still mourning their recently deceased mother; their old (and significantly older) friend Justice (Deirdre O’Connell, fresh off her Tony win for Dana H.), who acts as a maternal figure; and the mysterious Lot (Harold Surratt), Ginny’s friend, an outsider artist and musician.
It feels disingenuous to describe the plot, since the most dramatic event that occurs over the course of the two-and-a-half drama is a disruption in Christopher and Ginny’s internet service. To be fair, things do happen. At Justice’s suggestion, Christopher approaches Lot and offers him a job as a sort of an artistic mentor for his musically inclined sister. “Help her get creative,” Christopher implores the reluctant older man, suggesting that he help her “make a song.” But like much else in the play, that narrative thread doesn’t really go anywhere and soon gets dropped, albeit not before some awkward exchanges between Lot and Ginny that quickly spook him.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
Each of the characters has artistic leanings and are deeply yearning for emotional and romantic connection. In its best moments, the play conveys those feelings in deeply moving fashion, as when Christopher relates his anguish upon losing a letter from his late mother and his desperate effort to write down its content before it disappears from his memory. Ginny, who finds herself sometimes unable to express herself clearly, inaccurately describes a fourteen-year-old boy she likes as her “boyfriend,” leading a shaken Lot to issue a harsh warning before she corrects herself.
Lot, superbly played by Surratt, proves the play’s most fascinating and enigmatic character. He tells Christopher that he earned a graduate degree in his ‘40s in experimental mathematics. “I proved the existence of God,” he says matter-of-factly. When Christopher asks if he can see the proof, Lot tells him, “I threw it away. Art’s a better delivery system.”
It’s a wonderful line. The problem is that the delivery system in Corsicana isn’t particularly efficient, squandering the overall impact with its discursive dialogue, excessive length and unwillingness to articulate its themes. Directly Sam Gold, fresh off massacring Macbeth on Broadway, doesn’t help matters with his lethargic staging. He resorts to his familiar device of frequently having the actors onstage even when they’re not in the scene, standing in the corners like they’re being punished in detention. The jarring scene shifts are confusing, the pacing is deadly slow, and the actors are frequently inaudible. The ugly, bland set, representing the siblings’ and Lot’s homes, is glaringly lit in visually unappealing fashion. And despite the fact that the scenery consists of little more than a smattering of furniture, the stage features a revolving turntable that gets more of a workout than the one in Les Miz. More ridiculously, there’s a large metal overhang that the actors are repeatedly forced to move back and forth, making us hope that they’re getting extra pay for all the manual labor.
And yet, we nonetheless find ourselves very much caring for these troubled characters. The playwright, who himself has a sister with Down syndrome, has created vividly complex figures who are fully inhabited by the talented performers. Brewer proves as luminous here as in her award-winning theatrical debut in Amy and the Orphans several years ago; Dagger feels so authentic you never once catch him acting; and O’Connell makes even the smallest moments register with emotional truth. Their powerful efforts compensate for the evening’s laborious aspects.
Corsicana opened June 22, 2022, at Playwrights Horizons and runs through July 10. Tickets and information: playwrightshorizons.org
