Off-B'way Reviews: Lunar Eclipse; Bus Stop

Lisa Emery and Reed Birney in
Lunar Eclipse.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Donald Margulies’ tender and moving new play Lunar Eclipse from Second Stage at the Signature Theater Center, is a simple, direct depiction of a long marriage, the elusiveness of memory, and the endurance of love. George and Em, an elderly couple, are sitting up in a field in the middle of the night on their farm in Western Kentucky, to obverse the titular astronomical event. As the seven stages of the eclipse progress, we gradually learn the intricacies, compromises, joys and pitfalls of their decades-long union. George is going through a deep depression after the loss of his beloved dog (the last in a long line of cherished canines) and his growing frustration with the futility of life in general. “We’re taught that good triumphs over evil. Right? And love and generosity triumph over hate and greed. But, what if it turns out we’re wrong. The bad guys won the battle?,” he moans, without specifically naming any political figures or movements. Even Em’s cheerfulness drives him to distraction. 

Em attempts to lighten the mood, but, after a couple of shots of bourbon, she lets her smiley-face mask slip and reveals a long-term sadness, largely over the death of their adopted son Tim from a drug overdose. (We eventually learn Tim’s birth mother was an addict.) Margulies subtly reveals the couple’s inner conflicts through realistic details such as the fate of a telescope and attempts to bring failing crops to fruition.

At times, his language is bit too writerly and on-the-nose as when Em compares her melancholy to an eclipse or when George contrasts his blighted efforts at connecting with Tim with raising a non-productive batch of sugar beets. But this is a minor flaw in an otherwise endearing and heartbreaking play with a physically beautiful production under Kate Whoriskey’s sensitive, nearly invisible direction and a pair of veterans actors bringing two everyday people to vibrant life. 

Reed Birney and Lisa Emery in
Lunar Eclipse.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Reed Birney and Lisa Emery have been gracing Broadway and Off-Broadway stages for decades in roles large and small, with fully-fleshed characterizations. Lunar Eclipse is no exception. The small moments are the most shattering, as when George calls his dog to go home and then suddenly remembers she’s gone. The look of broken realization on Birney’s face is devastating. Emery is equally expressive as she peels back the layers of optimistic sunshine to expose her grieving inner sorrow. They also both find the humor in the nagging little habits that set off spouses’ tempers.

Set designer Walt Spangler’s lush, bucolic field, illuminated by Amith Chandrashaker’s gorgeous lighting, provides the perfect setting for this sweet and simple portrait of a couple uncovering their inner selves.

The company of Bus Stop.
Credit: Carol Rosegg

Although it was written some 70 years earlier than Lunar Eclipse, William Inge’s Bus Stop, recently in a co-production from Classic Stage Company, NAATCO and Transport Group, shares the same insightful examination of people reaching out to each other. Like George and Em, the passengers on a blizzard-bound bus in the rural Midwest, are reluctant to show their true selves. Best known for the 1956 film version starring Marilyn Monroe, Bus Stop is a sterling example of the disparate-characters-in-a-confined-space template. Four travellers and the bus driver are stranded at Grace’s Diner in small-town Kansas until the roads are cleared of snow. Their striving—and that of the sheriff, proprietor Grace and her teenaged waitress Elma—to escape from loneliness drives the plot and served as Inge’s theme in all of his plays including Come Back, Little Sheba, Picnic and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. 

David Shih and CIndy Cheung in
Bus Stop.
Credit: Carol Rosegg

The central conflict involves night-club singer Cherie (beautifully differentiated from Monroe by Midori Francis) and her efforts to evade lovesick cowpoke Bo (Michael Hsu Rosen, full of blustering bravado hiding a scared little boy). The alcoholic former professor Lyman (Rajesh Bose, concealing self-loathing with pompous pretensions) attempts to make a rendezvous with the naive Elma (Delphi Borich, simultaneously conveying innocence and curiosity about the adult world) while been-around-the-block Grace (sharp as vinegar Cindy Cheung) engages in a tryst with the bus driver Carl (ribald David Shih). Each is seeking comfort and connection and Inge documents their solitary struggles with compassion. Moses Villarama is moving as Virgil, Bo’s guardian and surrogate father and David Lee Huyhn displays masculine authority and understanding as the no-nonsense sheriff. The ensemble is all Asian, notable only in that it gives these fine actors opportunities to play roles for which they might not otherwise have been cast.

Jack Cummings III’s simple, direct staging lets the characters’ complex yearnings speak for themselves. Peiyi Wong’s homey set evokes Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and R. Lee Kennedy’s subtle lighting directs our attention to the right places without being obvious. We can see each character is afraid to let their amorous designs and emotional vulnerabilities out in the open. By the time the snow has been plowed, we’ve looked inside each of these loners and seen a piece of ourselves.  

Lunar Eclipse: June 3—22. Second Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Theater, 480 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: 80 mins. with no intermission. 2st.com.

Bus Stop: May 18—June 8. Classic Stage Company, NAATCO, and Transport Group at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater, 136 E. 13th St., NYC. Running time: two hours including intermission. classic stage.org.