As he did in his previous work Wet Brain, which ran at Playwrights last summer, John Caswell mixes a believable situation with the fantasies of his characters to create a weird, dream-like world in Scene Partners. Wet Brain had a family dealing with the father’s alcoholism and descent into madness fused with allusions to sci-fi and outer-space aliens. In Scene Partners, we follow the bizarre journey of 75-year-old, recently widowed, aspiring actress Meryl Kowalski (the luminous Dianne Wiest) as she leaves her home in the Midwest for 1985 Hollywood and film stardom. Within a matter of days, she acquires an agent (at gunpoint), a spot in a hot acting class, and an audition for a self-written movie based on her own life in which she hopes to play the leading role.
The scenes are exaggerated and unreal, so we don’t know which are actual and which are figments of her possible dementia. Meryl often appears to be playing out scenes from her favorite films as she compares her brutal dead husband to Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar and connects with her drug-addicted daughter during an out-of-body experience while getting an MRI scan. Meryl’s real sojourn seems to be one of self-discovery. Her autobiographical screenplay exposes a sexual assault from her stepfather and an adult life of despair and poverty.
But it’s hard to connect with Meryl since Caswell’s text never reveals what’s real and what’s not. Even her train trip to L.A. is combined with scenes from “Doctor Zhivago,” and her early days in LaLa Land are depicted like a film noir. Her name evokes comparisons to the great Streep who was emerging as the star of stars at the time of the play.
Almost the entire play could be in Meryl’s head since we also see her getting numerous medical examinations at the insistence of her sister (the subtle Johann Day) with whom she is staying. Despite the confusing nature of the script, Scene Partners offers a touching depiction of a woman seeking meaning for her seemingly random, empty life.
The brilliantly imaginative director Rachel Chavkin gives this confusing yet moving work the best possible production, fluidly staging the scenes with the aid of David Zinn’s set of mobile panels displaying evocative projections of old films. (Anne Troup is listed as video producer.) Wiest brilliantly commands the stage as Meryl, searching for a purpose in a maze of movie memories and holding on to her sanity with a fierce grip. In addition to the sweetly supportive Day, Josh Hamilton, Eric Berryman, Carmen M. Herilhy and Kristen Sieh shine in multiple roles.
