MARVIN'S ROOM IS a play about life in the midst of death or death in the midst of life. Yet Marvin's Room is a comedy. A terribly dark comedy, you'd think. But playwright Scott McPherson succeeds in using the comedy as an intermediary between the brutality of dying and the uplifting human spirit.
Throughout McPherson's play we see the juxtaposition of life and death, sadness and whimsy, gravity and absurdity. When the dying Bessie collapses at Disneyworld, the happiest place on earth, she is swooped up and carried to the children's rest hut by a big, fuzzy gopher.
McPherson boldly experiments with a full range of comedy from subtle irony to near slapstick, as seen in the first scene where an hysterically inept doctor attempts to draw blood from Bessie prior to her diagnosis of leukemia.
Upon Bessie's diagnosis, her estranged sister Lee flies in from Ohio, with two teenage sons in tow, to do her part as potential bone marrow donor. At this point the play takes on an overload of crises as Bessie continues to care for her bed-ridden, dying father and her batty Aunt Ruth, while dealing with the issues of a selfish sister, a troubled nephew on vacation from the mental hospital where he resides since burning down the family home, and her own death.
At first glance it appears McPherson has lost control and plopped us into the middle of an entangled soap opera plot. But as the play winds through each catastrophe, cleverly paralleled by Aunt Ruth's loyal watching of her favorite soap opera (she elegantly dresses for the marriage of her two favorite characters), we realize McPherson is just toying with us a little before moving beyond the satire into the paramount issues of the play: choosing a life and caring for another.
Bessie has spent most of her adult life caring for Aunt Ruth, who is crippled by a deteriorating spine, and standing vigil over her dying father. "He's been dying for 20 years," she says. "He's doing it real slow so I don't miss anything."
Contrarily, Lee split to avoid wasting her life caring for others. When Bessie confronts her own death, she must also confront her life. While she appears to the rest of the world as some kind of saintly servant, Bessie comes to realize that her choice to care for others has filled her life with satisfaction and much love. "I'm so lucky to have been able to love so much," Bessie tells Lee. McPherson's script combined with Annette Hillman's acting under the direction of Bill Morey, allows her this matter-of-fact realization without mawkish sentimentality.
McPherson's script relies on a series of short scenes, which unfortunately requires an equal number of blackouts, giving viewers too many opportunities to drift away from the happenings on stage. However, Morey keeps the tight scenes moving quickly, and a worthy cast continually pulls you back and triumphs in carrying McPherson's poignant, though sometimes difficult, script to success.
Opposite Hillman's memorable performance as Bessie, Meg Nolan, a.k.a.'s artistic director, delivers a definitive performance as the troubled, abrasive Lee.
As Dr. Wally, K. Scott Coopwood delivers a hilarious comedy routine laced with absorbing patient empathy.
Because Marvin's Room was written during the time McPherson, who was suffering from AIDS-related illnesses, was caring for his lover, who was dying from AIDS, it's been described as a thinly disguised AIDS play. Certainly, the similarities are apparent in Marvin's Room, but the play is far more universal. Anyone who has watched the deterioration of another or faced the questions of aging parents will empathize with the decisions made by each of the sisters.
McPherson died of AIDS on November 7, 1992, shortly after Marvin's Room opened in New York City to enthusiastic reviews.
a.k.a.'s production of Marvin's Room continues Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. through April 23 at 125 E. Congress St. Tickets are $7. For information call 623-7852.
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