In the afternoon

A good Night carries a quiet Stranger

By Katherine Joyce

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Ralph Murphy and Bernie Tato are Perfect Strangers.

Back in the day, matinees were reserved for kids’ stuff — westerns, cliffhangers, and the like. Today, they’re mostly for people looking to save a few bucks. This winter, however, the Players’ Ring has devoted their weekend afternoons to a pair of local playwrights, who have created two short pieces featured in Stories for a Winter Afternoon. The first is an adaptation of O. Henry’s story Makes the Whole World Kin, by Massachusetts and Maine resident David Mauriello. Retitled The Perfect Stranger, this short work focuses on two men finding common ground under unusual circumstances.

Of similar age and health, the pair have taken different paths through life, which lead them to meet under what turns out to be a somewhat amusing happenstance. Although an endearing and charming story, the performance lacks the spark of energy to make the men’s evolution hit home. Both actors seem somewhat awkward, and their stilted delivery of confident or humorous lines detracts from the story.

There is also a timing problem that seems innate to the script, although delivery may have contributed. This results in situations where the length of an exchange of dialogue is not enough to carry the actors through an action, so the actors are forced into long silences to eek out the words they have been given. It also results in situations in which a character remains silent when it seems only natural for him to respond. The staging also becomes awkward during these moments because the attempt to fill such moments with more action rather than dialogue simply prolongs the silences. Nonetheless, the story retains its charming gist.

The Players’ Ring set is simple and innovative, in that it uses the same pieces for both plays, using and placing the pieces to create two completely different atmospheres. In The Perfect Stranger, the set is a bedroom. The bed is a pallet atop a table, with a headboard vice gripped to one end. It looks strikingly like an old-fashioned platform bed (aside from the vice grips, which were not noticeable). The bureau is plain and old, covered with lace, as in olden days, as well as the little things we all keep on our dressers.

For the second play, Not On This Night, the bed is transformed into a rustic table, and the bureau becomes a sideboard. A window and a beam are added to augment a bucolic European atmosphere.

By Kittery resident Evelyn Jones, Not On This Night is also a story about searching for common ground in unexpected circumstances. In the war-stricken Ardennes Forest on the border of France and Belgium, a teenage Jacqueline celebrates Christmas Eve alone. Her parents are dead, her brother and her fiancé are both off fighting in the Second World War. Eight days earlier, the Battle of the Bulge began in this very forest, and the soldiers have taken almost everything. She sets the table for three, and imagines a Christmas Eve conversation between herself, her brother, and her fiancé. Over the course of the evening those placesettings become full, as soldiers — one American and one German, both young — join her, each arriving hungry and exhausted, searching for shelter. Jacqueline attempts to coax the boys into celebrating with each other in the spirit of Christmas, in spite of the war.

The story alone, given the time of year and the state of world affairs, is enough to move the audience to tears. However, the actors add a great deal of authenticity to the story. To start, the accents (my pet peeve is mediocre accents) are surprisingly good, given the extreme difficulty of the French and German accents. Juliet Nelson gives a charming performance as Jacqueline. Although she begins slowly, with a number of pauses in her long opening monologue, she ends up doing an excellent job of portraying this young and headstrong woman. The emotional strain of living in a war zone, coupled with her sheer loneliness, give the character an emotional rawness that is touching. Although there are times when she becomes plaintive in moments I want her to be strong, plaintive is a legitimate and respectable choice for an 18-year-old living under such circumstances.

Both young men are also quite good. The tragedy of soldiers needing to grow up so quickly is further illustrated by their youthful anger and their obvious longing for home. Christopher Curtis as Reinhold Schultz has a wonderfully endearing child-like quality that sets off the protective nature of Jacqueline (as well as the audience). It is important that he have this quality to permit the audience to see through the Nazi cause to the young man’s own character. The bitterness of Andrew Fling as Eddie Miller is coupled with a wonderful American sense of humor, making the audience feel a comfortable camaraderie with him, in spite of his fear-driven machismo.

Both stories are charming vignettes, meant to warm the heart in this cold month. They are incredibly timely in their simple theme. Director Peggi McCarthy (recently seen on this very stage as the mother in Beauty Queen of Leenane) does a good job of bringing out the warmth of the stories, and illustrating the humanity of living life open to the possibility of goodness in everyone.

Katherine Joyce can be reached at ingliskat@aol.com