Interesting ‘Composition’ At TheatreWorks Hartford

By Julie Stern

As you take your seats for Hartford TheaterWorks’ world premiere of Composition, Adrian W. Jones’ realistic set of a shabby New York apartment will knock your socks off. Every detail, from the thickly layered paint on the woodwork to the barred shadows cast by unseen Venetian blinds (actually the work of lighting designer Marcus Doshi), combines to establish the scene. This is the home of  two young composers, struggling to get by on meager financial grants.

Playwright Timothy McCracken doubles as the main character, Henry, recognized as a serious talent, but currently suffering from a devastating writer’s block. Unable to get beyond the opening chords of his latest work, Henry spends his days draped upon the couch in a semi-catatonic state, emerging only to look haunted and eat pickles.

Roommate Curtis, played by Tommy Schrider, is highly prolific, easily turning out copious amounts of mediocre work, which leaves him time to go to the gym and pick up girls.

Things begin to happen when Curtis brings home Alex, a mysterious woman of untapped depths, who uses her liaison with the shallow Curtis as a means to get closer to Henry, and perhaps find the source of his hang-up. (Which she does.)

I had a couple of problems with this play. First it uses the device of darkening the stage every few minutes, accompanied by the dissonant sawing of a cello, to convey the passage of time, and Henry’s growing despair. After a while this becomes repetitive without building up to anything.

Secondly, perhaps Mr McCracken is more a natural actor than playwright. Composition seems strung together from mini-scenes which he understands from the inside, but which don’t really cohere into a resonant story. If Alex doesn’t really like Curtis much, why did she come home with him, and why does she stay? What is the basis of Henry and Curtis’ friendship, beyond Henry’s possession of a rent-controlled apartment with two bedrooms?

Tara Falk is appealing and attractive as Alexandra, and the play gets more interesting whenever she knocks on the apartment door, and Mr Schrider bounces around ebulliently, but the morbidly depressed Henry is so dreary that he is a little hard to sympathize with.

It is an interesting novelty to see a play that actually deals with music, and the process of constructing it. The opus that Henry is laboring on — and eventually, I’m glad to say — finishes, is more seamlessly constructed and convincing than the play itself. The audience seemed to like it a lot, however, and many stood for an ovation at the end.

 

(Performances continue until March 11. Call 860-527-7838 or visit TheaterWorksHartford.org for details.)