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| L-R: Christine Bruno and Chris Henry Coffey in PERFECT SERVANT. Photo by Carol Rosegg. |
NBC’s award-winning hit
series, This Is Us, is a remarkable
piece of work. It deals sensitively with
issues ranging from physical disability and infertility (Kate, one of the
drama’s principal characters, is clinically overweight and successfully
confronted her own infertility problem) to the pressures of balancing the
strains of work against those of family (Randall, Kate’s adoptive brother, elected
to the City Council following a successful career in the financial world, confronts
the problem of satisfying the needs of his constituents with that of
maintaining loving relationships with his wife and three daughters.)
Bekah Brunstetter, a co-producer and writer on the
show, has drawn on the just those themes in writing Public Servant, a terrific three-hander currently premiering at the
Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row on West 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan. This is readily understandable since Ms
Brunstetter has struggled with infertility issues herself and since her own
father served as a County Commissioner for many years. Ms Brunstetter readily acknowledges that Public Servant was inspired by her
recollections of her father’s political career and the problems he faced in
raising a family, working in the private sector, and seeking to please all of
his constituents at the same time which was, of course, a near impossible task.
Public Servant is being produced
by Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), under the Artistic Direction of
Nicholas Viselli. TBTB is an acclaimed
Off-Broadway company that integrates able-bodied actors with artists with
disabilities. Originally founded 40 years ago as Theater by the Blind, the
company's mission is “to change the image of people with disabilities from one
of dependence to independence, to fight stereotypes and misperceptions
associated with disability, and to show how vibrant, fluid and exuberant the
work of artists with disabilities can be”.
(It
may be worth noting at this point that Christine Bruno, one of the three actors
in Public Servant is, herself, a
staunch advocate for the disabled, serving as chair of the SAG-AFTRA NY Local
Board Performers with Disabilities Committee (PWD) and is a member of the
SAG-AFTRA National PWD and Actors Equity EEOC Committees.)
The central character
in Public Servant is Ed Sink (Chris
Henry Coffey), a church-going small town politician in North Carolina who has
the very best of intentions but who may have bitten off more than he can
chew. (Rather like Randall in that
respect in This Is Us.)
Miriam Hart
(Christine Bruno), one of Ed’s constituents and suffering from cerebral palsy,
has arrived unannounced at Ed’s office in the hopes of soliciting his assistance
in selling her recently-deceased mother’s house. The problem is that plans are underway to
build a new beltway in the town which could render her mother’s house worthless
and she is seeking compensation for that loss.
All of which could interfere with Ed’s own pet project to build a pool
in the town. It really does seem that
you never can do just one nice thing for someone – certainly not without
pissing off someone else.
Moreover, Miriam is
also desperately seeking to become pregnant, so far to no avail. (Rather like Kate, I’d say, in This Is Us.)
Which brings us to
the third character in Public Servant,
Ed’s daughter, Hannah (Anna Lentz).
Insecure, promiscuous, insensitive and shallow, but with all the
insufferable liberal certainty that only a nineteen-year-old can muster, she
has come home to visit her father. But
she certainly doesn’t feel that she can tell him that she’s pregnant.
In her note on how to
stage Public Servant, the playwright
has suggested that the play be thought of “as a triangle that’s being
constantly turned. When one character is the focus, the other two rest at the
corners, and often participate in the focus character’s world.” And the director, Geordie Broadwater, has
succeeded in doing just that.
Thus Miriam’s
disability, her infertility, her problem selling her mother’s house – all are
central to her but somewhat peripheral to Ed and Hannah. And yet it is Ed who does participate in her
world, at least to the extent of assisting her in selling her mother’s house. Similarly, Hannah’s pregnancy is central to
her even if it is peripheral to Ed and Miriam.
And yet Miriam ends up playing an outsize role in assisting Hannah in
her time of need and Ed, as it turns out, is there for her as well.
I’m reminded of the
old maxim “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes” and I
think the play truly succeeds at conveying that message, particularly in regard
to today’s pro-life/pro-choice conundrum.
And it does so with great sensitivity.
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| L-R: Chris Henry Coffey and Anna Lentz in PUBLIC SERVANT. Photo by Carol Rosegg. |
All three actors deliver
superb performances. Chris Henry Coffey
perfectly embodies the small town businessman, politician, and father who
really wants to do the right thing and sometimes finds himself overwhelmed by
life itself but somehow manages to succeed in the end. Christine Bruno is incredible, exhibiting a
fortitude in the face of adversity that we’d all be well-advised to emulate and
an empathy for others even when their circumstances are antithetical to her
own. And Anna Lentz, in her Off-Broadway
debut has brilliantly captured the inconsistencies, contradictions, and
vagaries of youth. I expect that we’ll
be seeing a lot more of her.
The set design by
Edward T. Morris is creative but I don’t think it really works. The stage is basically set as an outdoor
scene in which two white picket fences are set at an angle to one another and
intended, I think, to fulfill the playwright’s suggestion that the play be
thought of “as a triangle that’s being constantly turned.” And to be sure, it does do that.
But the set also
obscures the distinction between inside and outside. Sections of the fence swing open and closed
to reveal and conceal interior scenes – an office, a clinic, a home – and
perhaps the intent there is to suggest that things are often not what they seem
when one goes behind the scenes. If so,
I get the point but I found the process unnecessarily disconcerting.
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