Superb cast in drama that looks at life,
lies
Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/17/00
By GRETCHEN C. VAN BENTHUYSEN, THEATER WRITER
Men without jobs and the women who love them is at the heart of
Sandra Perlman's new drama "In Search of Red River Dog," now
playing at the New Jersey Repertory Theatre in Long Branch.
Also at the heart of the matter are lies.
The lies told by the steel mill owners to its laid off workers.
Lies told by the garbage company that was illegally dumping chemicals
years ago that now have poisoned the groundwater in Deerfield ,
Ohio , in 1978. And the lies told between a husband and wife that,
when revealed, undermine the shaky foundation of their marriage.
IN SEARCH OF RED RIVER DOG
New Jersey Repertory Company
179 Broadway, Long Branch
8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays
2 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 5
$25-$27
(732) 229-3166 |
Superbly acted by all four cast members and directed by Rob Reese,
the play unfolds over 48 hours in the front yard of a run-down
trailer.
Sam Shepardesque in a stark, reality driven, highly emotional
way, the plot centers on Paulette (Dana Benningfield) and Denny
(Jeff Farkash), high school sweethearts who married after she became
pregnant.
Their young daughter has recently died and Paulette believes the
cause was poisoned water from leaky chemical drums. Paulette's
beloved dog Red also is sick, and she vows that if he dies (which
he ultimately does), she'll have his remains analyzed to prove
he was poisoned.
Meanwhile, Paulette has some unusual habits which leads us to
think she may be losing her grip on reality. She sings nursery
rhymes. Hangs laundry at night to dry. And plants exotic spices
she has no use for.
She also is very bright - brightest kid in school - who married
a football player who can barely put two words together. Benningfield
turns in a finely wrought performance as the young wife who has
to make some hard choices.
Her mother Bertie (Betty Hudson), who lost two children to miscarriages
before she got the family out of a beautiful but deadly coal mining
valley in West Virginia , loves her daughter with a passion. But
she does not want to move again, and believes if Paulette stirs
up trouble with her theory about the poisoned water, they will
never work again and be forced to leave the area.
Hudson is excellent as the mother, particularly when she is horrified
at the circumstances surrounding Red's death and what happened
immediately afterward.
Her husband John (Ross Haines) is drinking himself to death because
he knows the steel mills will never reopen and he can't even land
a clerk's job at the local convenience store because he can't work
the computerized cash register.
It is the women who have the survival instincts. John accepts
this. Denny does not.
Farkash's portrait of a Denny that is insecure and terrified his
wife will leave him is nicely done. We want to feel sorry for his
predicament and do, up to a point. As his fears overtake him, accusing
his wife of infidelity and lack of respect, he becomes pathetic.
As always, it comes down to sex and Denny resents not having any
with Paulette, just because a doctor said to give her time to recover
from their baby's death.
He finally takes his frustration out on her and nobody's life
will ever be the same.
At the end of this two-hour drama we realize Paulette is the one
who is facing reality and Denny is the one who lives in an imaginary
world.
Published on October 17, 2000