Man Who... Starts Slow, Finishes Strong

By EMILY G.W. CHAU

Contributing Writer

A woman thinks her own arm is her mother’s. A man turns into a stick, literally. “They said I needed to see a neurologist.”

Opposite extremes converge in The Man Who. . . an artistic combination of two one-act plays under the direction of Brian R. Fairley ’05. Produced by Mollie M. Kirk ’07, this performance pairs two very different, but complementary plays (“The Man Who…” written by Peter Brook and Marie Helen Estienne and “The Man Who Turned Into a Stick” by Kobo Abe) for a unified and touching effect. Although initially slow-paced, the strong performances by the small five-person cast, marked by its versatility and physicality, overcome this early slow start.

The two plays are variations on the same theme, investigating how the bizarrely abnormal and the extraordinarily ordinary struggle to live life.

“The Man Who…”, the first of the plays, is based on Dr. Oliver Sack’s “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” a famous medical examination of patients with brain disorders. Much like the book, which presents a number of patients whose memory, perception, emotions, and personality were affected by various neurological disorders, the play unifies a series of sketches about these patients. Linked by a shared struggle to cope with their disorders, these vignettes highlight the common humanity that exists in us all, while questioning if an excessively abnormal life is worth living.

Conversely, the much shorter act, “The Man Who Turned Into a Stick” about an emotionally dead man, asks if life is worth living if it is too mundane. Fairley leaves his director’s chair for a moment to also act as the man who, unsatisfied with life, turns into a stick and falls of the roof of a building. As a stick, he cannot respond to the pair of messengers from Hell who, sent to judge his life, decide to throw him to the ground to be lost in a mass of other sticks which hold the souls of other men.

Opening to the purposefully discordant music played by cellist Sarah K. Howard ’07, the first play features four actors, Kris J. Bartkus ’08, Faith O. Imafidon ’08, Phil Redko, and C. Calla Videt ’08. Each gives a noteworthy performance, easily and impressively filling a range of roles, each playing a universally cold and cruelly detached doctor and a number of believable characters afflicted by disorders. They struggle with afflictions ranging from short-term memory loss and obsessive-compulsive disorder to Tourette’s syndrome and an inability to be free.

As the tortured patient who could not perceive objects from his left fieƒld of vision, Bartkus is impressive as a man who speaks rapidly in half-words and even, as a symptom of his disorder, invented some new words. Equally remarkable were performances by Videt, as a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Redko as a man who can no longer recognize the face of his wife.

Overall, their deeply emotional performances came to a fore two successive scenes—the first and second featuring Imafidon and Redko, respectively. In these particular scenes, Imafidon plays a patient who cannot move without exerting a great deal of effort, while Redko is afflicted by Tourette’s syndrom. Talking directly to the audience, Imafidon anguishes that “Everyday is a mental marathon,” and Redko laments that since there is no place in the world from him, he must create one.

While emotionally moving, the repetitive patient-doctor scenarios contributed to a first half was oppressively slow and the dramatic production device of a moving TV, which flashed the name of the particular disorder, was very distracting. However, the second one-act was much more engaging in color, movement and style.

Charming performances by Bartkus and Videt, as the hippies who are hit over the head by the stick man, sharply contrast with Fairley’s difficult inner torment over never having been satisfied in his life.

Similarly enjoyable to watch was the characters’ dynamic interplay with Imafidon, who, as the neophyte woman from Hell, sympathizes with the stick and Redko, as the hardened Hell worker.

The minimalist set of the second half freed up the stage, helping usher in a more successful tone. As a whole, however, the cast made great use of their confined space on the Loeb Experimental Stage. In part, this was enabled by effective lighting designed by Ellie M. M. Campisano ’08 and the use of raised platforms.

“The Man Who…” boasts impressive talents, and it is a great shame that much of the audience did not return from intermission to see the fascinating second half.