The Quality of Life

[thoreau]

David and I went to see "The Quality of Life" (Written and directed by Jane Anderson) at American Conservatory Theater this evening.

From the Theater's website:

A daring, star-studded cast explores hot-button issues of life and death in this riveting new tour-de-force, featuring Laurie Metcalf (Desperate Housewives, Roseanne), JoBeth Williams (Poltergeist, The Big Chill), Steven Culp (A.C.T.'s Blackbird and Angels in America), and two-time OBIE Award winner Dennis Boutsikaris. When a religious Midwestern couple, Bill and Dinah, visit free-spirited cousin Jeannette and her husband, Neil, in their Northern California home, both couples confront loss and survival in the face of explosive circumstance.

An unforgettable, brave work of heart and humor by Emmy Award–winning playwright-director Jane Anderson, The Quality of Life was nominated for four 2007 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and six 2008 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards.

I thought the writing was superb - and considering the intimacy of the play it was spectacularly lit and staged for the giant stage at ACT. Both David and I thought the second act felt rushed (no wonder - at just 28 minutes) and not quite fleshed out enough. The play touches on all sorts of topics from evangelical faith - to the loss of a child to violent crime - to euthanasia (sp?) or choosing when to die when faced with a critical illness. Brilliant acting and chemistry made up for any lack of script strength. Coupled together Boutsikaris and Metcalf make the quintessential hippy pair living in the coastal range of the California hills and Williams and Culp make a deeply troubled pair of evangelicals whose daughter was murdered a year before by a mentally retarded killer. In one particular scene Culp is berating Metcalf about how she's dealing with the loss and he says "you have no idea what you'll be like in a year's time" - and she says right back at him - and says "Yes I do - I can look at you and see where I'll be in a year, angry, sad and clinging to a faith that can't help me" - its a very intense look at choices we can make - in the face of overwhelming grief. Playwright Anderson's metaphor of a forest fire (that destroys the home of Metcalf and Boutsikaris a year and a half before the play opens) allows her to mine the richness of particularly Boutsikaris' interaction with nature before him as he slowly dies of cancer - wondering what kind of flower his energy will produce.

For San Franciscans that love theater - this is great stuff. It's not overly melodramatic - but does stick to it's guns - and lets both sides of the metaphysical/religious argument over death with dignity have its say. It's beautiful beautiful theatre...