The themes of trust and forgiveness come into sharp focus in Speaking in Tongues, produced by the Milwaukee Repertory Theater in its intimate Stiemke Studio.
As the play begins, two marriages are on the rocks. Both involve middle-aged couples that have drifted apart. The couples, Pete and Jane, Leon and Sonja, have all come to the same conclusion: the solution to shaking off the numbness in their lives is an extramarital affair. In this intriguing play, full of unexpected twists, the four people seek the same path. They try to find it in a hotel room with a stranger they've just met at a bar. But will they find the intimacy and appreciation they desire?
The playwright choreographs their trysts by having the two couples speak their nearly-identical lines in sync. Director Laura Gordon enhances this concept by making each couple sit on opposite edges of the same bed. It's clear the couples are in two different hotel rooms, but the single bed illustrates the commonality of their situations. As the seductions progress, one couple eventually backs out; the other doesn't. And here's the kicker: the couples have done an unintentional partner-swap. What are the odds?
In the playwright's world, the typical six-degrees-of-separation is condensed to two degrees. The couples eventually return home and report back to their spouses. The unhappy news (about the adultery or almost-adultery) creates a further rift in their respective relationships. Both couples separate for a time. At the end of Act I, we know that one couple will make it, and the other doesn't.
That's about all the certainty the audience can expect from Speaking in Tongues. As the title implies, the play's language and the characters' behavior -- becomes increasingly mystical and enigmatic.
At the opening of Act II, all four actors have taken on new roles. They play out scenes their former characters have recounted to their partners. There's the tale of a missing woman. Another story, involving one of the husbands and a stranger, ends with a pair of dress shoes left on the beach. The "new" characters in Act II include the man who owns the dress shoes, his long-lost love, a psychiatrist who is treating the aforementioned long-lost love (and who becomes the missing woman), and the psychiatrist's husband. Also, one of the characters from Act I reappears: Leon, who we already know is a cop.
It's almost as if Speaking in Tongues was created as two separate plays. The parallel structure in Act I gives way to a more fractured approach in Act II. Thanks to a skillful playwright, director and cast, the audience manages to keep track of most the myriad details that comprise Act II.
The play's fragile construction likely would collapse without a talented cast. No fear here. Two of the Rep's company members, Lee E. Ernst (Leon) and Deborah Staples (Jane) are joined by well-known area actor Jonathan Smoots (Pete) and Jenny McKnight (Sonja), from Chicago. Ernst and McKnight make a particularly strong impression as a couple whose marriage is on the brink of collapse. Smoots gives a powerful, underplayed performance as the shocked husband whose wife is missing. Staples keeps the audience riveted while, in Act I, she discusses the odd events she witnessed on the night when a local woman disappeared.
The play's set is black and completely empty to the theater's back wall, with stone paths lining the edges of the stage. It creates an unwelcoming atmosphere where the characters appear lost and distant from each other in the endless darkness.
It should be noted that the play's 2001 Off-Broadway opening at the Gramercy Theater was directed by Mark Clements. He is now the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's artistic director.
