Theatre in Review: The Clearing (Theatre at St. Clement's)

	Brian P. Murphy and Brian McManamon. Photo: Hunter Canning.

Two brothers share a secret that festers for years, with devastating consequences, in The Clearing, an extremely glum family drama that never quite finds a compelling path into its characters' obsessions and neuroses. Les and Chris Ellis are siblings in their 20s who have trouble establishing independent lives. Chris is a strange sort of man-boy, odd of affect and lacking in impulse control; he has recently broken up with his girlfriend and appears to have no particular direction in life. Les has taken up with a nice young photographer named Peter, but when they all get together, they make a notably tense trio, with Chris' manner coming off as borderline hostile. Watching nervously on the sidelines is Ella, Les and Chris' mother, who thinks Peter is just what Les needs, yet who worries that something is terribly wrong with her sons.

And although Ella doesn't know the details, she's on the money. It's not just that Les and Chris seem permanently frozen in late adolescence. Mysteries abound: Why do the brothers continually return to a clearing in the woods near their childhood home for marshmallow roasts? Why does Chris seemingly decline as soon as Peter enters the scene? What is the source of the terrible panic attacks that overtake Chris? And who is Daniel, whose name Chris cries out in terror? And why is Les incapable of discussing any of this with Peter, whom he professes to love?

All will be revealed as the action spins toward a tragedy that will permanently shatter the Ellis family. This terrible turn of events is surprisingly lacking in impact, however, because the playwright, Jake Jeppson, throws up any number of roadblocks. For one thing, The Clearing is structurally odd, beginning near the end, then moving backward for several scenes before making a U-turn and heading forward again. To make this clear, the director, Josh Hecht, stages the scenic transitions with plenty of backward movement, like a film on rewind, while a voiceover announces how much further into the past we have gone. It's all very awkward, to say the least, and little is gained by reversing the narrative's natural order.

More damagingly, Jeppson struggles to find a solid psychological foundation for his drama. The characters are shorn of any texture or revealing detail; Les and Chris appear not to have jobs or interests, and we learn next to nothing about their early lives. Les and Peter never make a convincing pair -- their scenes together are extremely flat -- so when Peter must fight to hold onto Les, it barely seems worth the effort. It beggars belief that Ella has never been able to figure out what is wrong with her boys, especially since their secret is tied to a major event that rocked the family years before. Oddest of all is the scene in which Peter convinces Ella, who lives in a kind of self-imposed solitude, to pose naked for him; lonely people have their defenses, too, and it seems highly unlikely that, after knowing Peter for only a couple of weeks, she would willingly get physically and spiritually naked for him.

And when the truth that Les and Chris have been hiding for years is revealed, it's almost impossible to credit their actions. Even more to the point, it's hard to believe that they've gotten away with it, when a simple trip by the police to the clearing would explain everything.

Under Hecht's direction, all four members of the cast do their best, but the thinly conceived characters give them little to work with and their dialogue is often top-heavy with portent. "If we could communicate with God," asks Peter, "do you think God would answer?" "We're holding one another up; we're like a three-legged stool," says Les, about himself and Chris." There is a longish monologue about the silence of God, and, at one point, Ella gets on her knees and harangues God about her fate. Nobody ever discusses what they want for breakfast in The Clearing; it's all angst, all the time.

As Chris, Brian P. Murphy's brusque, often taunting, manner quickly becomes irritating, never mind the torments the character is said to be suffering. Brian McManamon seems genuinely stymied as Les, who is, admittedly, trapped in a mass of ambivalences. Gene Gallerano is a personable performer, but he can't prevent Peter from coming across as something of a pill from time to time, especially when addressing the audience -- and, again, it's never clear what he and Les see in each other. The best work comes from Allison Daugherty<, who, in addition to bravely baring it all in her big scene with Peter, is totally convincing as a woman made prematurely old by a lifetime of regrets.

The Clearing has an exceptionally beautiful physical production. Daniel Zimmerman's set places the action on a shallow, horizontal stage fronted by a dirt incline and backed by a tree covered with autumn leaves. It is lit throughout with tremendous sensitivity by Gertjan Houben. Tilly Grimes' costumes are well tailored to each character, and Sam Kusnetz's sound design capably creates a variety of effects, although his original music only adds to the show's generally depressive air.

I haven't a clue about how The Clearing was written, but it feels like Jeppson started with the play's big secret, then tried to build a dramatic house around it. However he did it, the seams show, and the construction is rickety at best.--David Barbour