Less is more in ‘hang,' Burbage Theatre's intense crime and punishment drama
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At some indefinite point in the near future, an unnamed victim (MJ Daly) of an unspecified but devastating crime is meeting with a pair of anonymous, dark-suited bureaucratic agents (Margaret Melozzi and Arron Morris) from an undisclosed department responsible for crime and punishment. She has been brought to a nondescript interrogation room (designed by Trevor Elliott) with just a small table and chairs, a wall-length two-way mirror, a water dispenser in the corner, and fluorescent lights above. There, she has been given the responsibility to decide how the person who has forever broken her life and brutally traumatized her family will be killed.
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The vagaries are intentional and powerful. They keep the audience from getting distracted by the minutia of the crime and the nature of the criminal, and succeed in keeping focus on the devastation they have caused and the failure of language to describe or explain it. Our victim has a lot to say, but she is hanging on by a thread and not in the mood for talking. The officious agents have a lot to say as well, but cannot help but repeatedly trip over themselves as they navigate what protocol requires them to say and what they wish to share. Hence the silences and abundance of fragmented and elliptical dialogue.
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Only three things in this play are presented with startling specification.
One pertains to the required race (Black) and gender (female) of the victim, for debbie tucker green's plays are – to varying degrees and in varying ways – explorations of contemporary racism and gender inequality. Interestingly, the playwright leaves the race of the two agents to the discretion of the director, who has opted for two white actors, one of whom is male. This combination results in some intriguing on-stage dynamics between the agents and with the victim, and accentuates the playwright's socio-political themes.
Another unfolds as the male agent delivers, with the enthusiasm of a well-versed hobbyist, a litany of gruesome details about the nature and effectiveness of lethal injection, gas, firing squad, beheading, and hanging as the victim weighs her options. Morris expertly taps the dark comedy found in his cringe-worthy diatribe as Melozzi, the senior agent, looks on approvingly.
Also cringe-worthy is the mesmerizing moment when the victim bravely exposes to the agents, in agonizing detail, her physical and emotional vulnerabilities and speaks of the immense suffering experienced by her family. Daly, whose character quakes and appears painfully uncomfortable in her own skin for much of the play, burns red hot during this extended monologue. She is brilliant.
Throughout the play, the agents complain about the uncomfortable climate in the room as an awkward segue to the matters at hand. They suggest that the fickle air conditioning unit is at fault. But it's the intense heat radiating from Daly as her character becomes vocal and empowered, and the frigid demeanor of their own characters as they go about their jobs that most likely accounts for the fluctuations in the thermostat.
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It accounts for the uncomfortable atmosphere in the theater as well, judging from the wide eyes and flushed faces reflected back at us from the mirror on stage. Clearly, 'hang' has served its purpose.
HANG
Play by debbie tucker green. Directed by Lynne Collinson. At the Burbage Theatre Co., 59 Blackstone Ave., Pawtucket. Through Feb. 16. Tickets are $30, including fees. 401-484-0355,
Bob Abelman is an award-winning theater critic who formerly wrote for the Austin Chronicle. Connect with him
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