"Pru Payne" - by Steven Drukman - SpeakEasy Stage Company (Boston, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: Karen MacDonald stars as "Prudence 'Pru' Payne" in Steven Drukman's "PRU PAYNE" at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until November 16, 2024. Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
“See, to a conservative critic like Hilton, a woman should not demand excellence but be content with “just good enough.” In a man, to demand excellence is gravitas. In a woman, frigidity. But I have feelings.”
- ("Pru") / Steven Drukman
SpeakEasy Stage Company
Presents Steven Drukman's
"PRU PAYNE"
East Coast Premiere!
Written by Steven Drukman
Directed by Paul Daigneault°
Cast Includes: Karen MacDonald* as "Prudence 'Pru' Payne," Gordon Clapp* as "Gus Cudahy," De'Lon Grant* as "Thomas Payne," Greg Maraio* as "Art Cudahy," Marianna Bassam* as "Dr. Dolan."
Additional Creative Team:
Production Stage Manager - Ross Gray; Assistant Stage Manager – Charlie Berry; Costume Designer - Charles Schoonmaker**; Props Designer - Emme Shaw; Sound Board Operator/Run Crew - Maria Papadopoulos; Scenic Design - Christopher Swader**, Justin Swader**; Sound Designer - Nathan Leigh**; Intimacy Director - Jesse Hinson; Lighting Designer - Aja Jackson**; Associate Sound Designer - Gage Baker; Wardrobe Supervisor - Roisin Daly
*Appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
**Member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829
°The Director or Choreographer is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
Performances:
October 18, 2024 through November 16, 2024
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood / BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston MA 02116
TICKETS:
Contact the Box Office # 617-933-8600 or visit www.speakeasystage.com
BUY TICKETS
COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.
SpeakEasy Stage Company offers a quiet, compassionate look at those impacted by a sorely heartless illness in "PRU PAYNE" now playing in Boston.
Written by Steven Drukman, the small-cast one-act play showcases well its five actors and, through the course of approximately 90 minutes, we soon feel a kinship for what most of their characters are going through.
(Photo: Karen MacDonald as "Prudence 'Pru' Payne" dances with Gordon Clapp as "Gus Cudahy" in a tender moment from Steven Drukman's "PRU PAYNE" at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until November 16, 2024. Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)
Drukman, a Newton native, sets the show in Massachusetts and there are plenty of familiar local references for Boston audiences to enjoy.
The plight of dementia and the ravages it brings forth (not just unto the individual but unto family and caring individuals that gradually become “collateral damage” in its wake) has been seen on stage before.
The level of frustration is clear as is the even more cruel aspect of dementia in that its victim is never really completely "gone" in an instant, which might be a more merciful demise.
No, instead their demise is a slow death - that "long goodbye" that weaves in and out of when their loved ones find themselves genuinely surprised at the moments they can have and enjoy the person they once knew return and as they always had been - only...not.
And then, just as quickly as they came, they are gone again and we don't know when they will return.
These are the cards the characters of "PRU PAYNE" have been dealt.
(Photo: Gordon Clapp as "Gus Cudahy" with De'Lon Grant as "Thomas Payne" in a scene from Steven Drukman's "PRU PAYNE" at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until November 16, 2024. Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)
However, the story of "PRU PAYNE" is actually more in how its main character is given a bit of a lifeline, if only for a moment.
But, then again, how long is an actual "moment" to them these days?
The blink of an eye?
An eternity?
For "PRU PAYNE" it could be both...or neither.
All five actors involved in the production, under the steady hand of SpeakEasy Stage director Paul Daigneault, give sensitive, insightful performances and the script by Drukman offers occasional humor to help keep the story light, saving the script from spiraling into a maudlin chasm.
(Photo: Greg Maraio as "Art Cudahy" with De'Lon Grant as "Thomas Payne" in a scene from Steven Drukman's "PRU PAYNE" at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until November 16, 2024. Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)
As the show takes us on a 20-year journey, will we be seeing anything new in "PRU PAYNE" to give us any sort of hope for a “cure”?
No, of course not (unfortunately).
What the show will offer us is a chance to get to know a few people who continue to live their lives over those 20 years not just with the illness ever present but in spite of it and in complete defiance of it.
For Prudence, aka "PRU PAYNE" (exquisitely played by Karen MacDonald), the disease is particularly cruel as, for most of her life, PRU has been a prominent erudite, an esteemed intellectual and an accomplished literary critic.
Now, in her better days at a healthcare facility in the year 1988, it is all PRU PAYNE can do to recall the name of the television show “Hogan’s Heroes.”
(Photo: Marianna Bassam as "Dr. Dolan" comforts Karen MacDonald as "Prudence 'Pru' Payne" in a scene from Steven Drukman's "PRU PAYNE" at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until November 16, 2024. Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)
PRU's son, Thomas (De’Lon Grant), also an aspiring writer, hopes to help his mother complete her memoirs before her mental deterioration reaches the point of no return.
PRU's primary care professional, Dr. Dolan (Marianna Bassam), dedicatedly tries to assist both PRU and new patient Gus (Gordon Clapp), a longtime school custodial engineer and widower who is experiencing his own form of “forgetfulness.”
Clapp is phenomenal as the gruff but ever-charming Gus, who has been brought into the facility by his son, Art (Greg Maraio), a former schoolmate of Thomas.
Both Grant and Maraio have some of the show’s more surprising exchanges as they become increasingly aware of the blossoming relationship between their parents.
(Photo: Karen MacDonald stars as "Prudence 'Pru' Payne" in Steven Drukman's "PRU PAYNE" at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until November 16, 2024. Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)
As PRU and Gus, MacDonald and Clapp each give compassionate performances as two persons who, in their prime, might never have even considered giving the other the time of day.
Now neither can remember what time it is - all they know is that, on their "good days," they know they are lucky to have the other person in their life.
The SpeakEasy Stage Company set design for "PRU PAYNE" is deceptively simple in appearance but in actuality is an absolutely intricate, beautiful design.
Supported by massive lighting tracts suspended above the stage and to either side of the set, the multiple lighting and sound cues are executed flawlessly.
"PRU PAYNE" at SpeakEasy continues in Boston until November 15th and is a show you should walk away from remembering it for a long time…God willing. In any event, don't let the moment to see this show slip away.
Coming up next at SpeakEasy Stage Company will be "AIN'T NO MO'" by Jordan E. Cooper which begins January 10th, 2025.
For tickets and more information, contact the Box Office at # 617-933-8600 or visit www.speakeasystage.com.
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Approximately one hour, 40 minutes with no intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
“Sublime, heartbreaking, funny, and fiercely intelligent” – Broadway World
Prudence, aka "PRU PAYNE" is a contemporary Dorothy Parker: a sharp-tongued intellectual and critic who recently signed on to share her extraordinary life in an eagerly-awaited autobiography.
But when PRU's memory starts to fade, her son sets her up in a state-of-the-art care facility, where love takes hold just as the world she once knew begins to slip away.
With wit, verve, and above all, heart, Pulitzer Prize nominee Steven Drukman explores questions of memory, identity, and connection.
ABOUT SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY
SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY is a non-profit theatre company located in the South End of Boston and is led by award-winning Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault. SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY was named the Pavilion Resident Theater for the Boston Center for the Arts in 2007 and produces 28 weeks of new plays and musicals each season at the Nancy and Ed Roberts Studio Theater in the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.
