Michaila Skye and Telly James give great performances as Donna and Tommy
Rogues Theatre stages first of two Shanley plays
John Patrick Shanley’s profile has risen considerably in the past few years since his 2004 play Doubt: A Parable won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and then went on to become an Academy Award-nominated film.
While Shanley has only recently become familiar to the public Rogues Theatre has a long relationship with the American playwright. Its current production The Dreamer Examines His Pillow is the fifth Shanley play Rogues has staged since 2000 and another Shanley work Italian American Reconciliation is on the bill for early 2010.
Directed by Stacie Harrison the play’s three-person cast includes Michaila Skye as Donna Telly James as Tommy and Joe-Norman Shaw as Donna’s dad.
After seeing The Dreamer Examines His Pillow — one of Shanley’s early works from 1985 — it’s clear to see why he went on to such acclaim. He’s a masterful playwright who does not scrimp on words. The natural effortless dialogue and descriptive monologues punctuated by an occasional witty turn-of-phrase is sort of a poetic experience.
The issues the play examines — searching for one’s identity responsibility for self the fear of losing too much of oneself to another and the very nature of love and sex — are poetic themes in their own right and lend themselves well to Shanley’s descriptive soul-searching language.
The play opens with a down-and-out Tommy living in a “shit hole” of an apartment with a grimy refrigerator (to which he speaks) and a disturbing self-portrait on the wall. At 27 Tommy is struggling to figure out his identity and to come to terms with himself. His ex Donna enters the squalid scene and confronts him about having an affair with her 16-year-old sister Mona. Donna is enraged yet still finds Tommy irresistible and has trouble saying “no” to his advances.
As they argue Donna tries to extract a promise from Tommy that he’ll stop seeing her sister. He replies he can’t promise anything because many of his actions are controlled by an unknown force deep within him. Donna leaves to seek her father’s advice.
James and Skye do a fabulous job of owning the lines delivering them organically and naturally. Their performances are almost film-like; they never seem to be “acting.” I do find it difficult however to buy into the strength of the attraction Donna feels for Tommy one she says is based on amazing nearly otherworldly sex. What’s missing is that undercurrent of smouldering sexuality between the two that would make it believable he’s capable of taking her to such erotic heights and encouraging her to look past his other obvious failings.
If it weren’t for the character of Donna’s father The Dreamer Examines His Pillow would be in angst overdrive. Despite how unappealing his character seems Shaw’s portrayal of a deadbeat dad who doesn’t care Tommy is boffing his teen daughter is funny and he provides a much-needed counterbalance to the intensity of the other two. Despite his many inadequacies as a father you can’t help but like him especially when he opens up to his daughter and the two have a heart-to-heart about life love and relationships.
The final scene when Tommy and Donna’s dad meet is where the play loses steam. The showdown between the two is anti-climactic and quite frankly the point of their dialogue remains lost on me. I was expecting some big life lesson there. (And there probably is; it’s just so well-obscured I missed it.)
That said The Dreamer Examines His Pillow is well worth seeing particularly if you’re a twentysomething facing those inevitable life questions of identity the purpose of life and when to take a leap of faith in a relationship.
