People Are Living There

An Athol Fugard play set in New Jersey? As unlikely as that seems, A Specific Theatre Company is presenting the playwright’s 1969 work People Are Living There in an adaptation that transposes the action from Johannesburg, South Africa to Elizabeth, NJ. The production is adapted and directed by Suzanne Shepherd, who has known Fugard for 30 years, and her revised script was approved by the playwright sight unseen — but maybe he should have taken a look at it. While I’m unfamiliar with the original version of the play, this new incarnation is a tedious piece that drags on and on despite a couple of interesting moments.

Since People Are Living There is one of only two plays by Fugard that do not deal with South African apartheid (the other is his 1965 work Hello and Goodbye), the movement of the play’s action to the Garden State is not inherently a bad idea. Set in a boarding house in 1969, People Are Living There centers around landlady Milly (O’Mara Leary), whose 10-year romantic relationship with one of her boarders, Ahlers, has just come to a messy end. While her former lover is out on a date with a younger woman, Milly decides to throw an impromptu party to celebrate her 50th birthday. She convinces boarders Don (Larry Silverberg) and Shorty (Ben Rauch) to go along with her; the idea is that she’ll make Ahlers extremely jealous that she’s having a good time without him.

The play explores the sense of isolation that these three characters feel. Don is supposedly studying for a business degree but seems more interested in reading psychological texts and practicing armchair psychology on his housemates. He’s something of a shut-in, so it’s difficult for Milly to drag him out of his room, much less get him to participate in her party. Shorty, on the other hand, is an eager young lad but a bit of a simpleton. He’s married to fellow boarder Sissy (Emma Myles) but it’s doubtful that the two have ever consummated their relationship. Rather than spend time with her husband, Sissy goes out with other men.

The writing is not Fugard’s best; the dialogue feels stilted and the play’s themes are often awkwardly expressed. Most of the acting is similarly heavy-handed. Leary focuses primarily on Milly’s outward anger and not enough on her inner anguish; Silverberg’s performance is too flat, allowing no room for any insights into the character; and Rauch gives a one-note rendition of Shorty’s child-like naiveté, which quickly becomes annoying. Myles alone brings a bit of variety and emotional connection to her role, but she is given the least amount of stage time.

Roger A. Mooney’s squalidly naturalistic set is excellent. That attention to detail extends to the props and costumes designed by Brenna McGuire, who provides period-looking comic books, boxes of potato chips, and other items. A pair of shoes that Shorty polishes seem a little too contemporary, but everything else is marvelously evocative of a bygone era.

Although the running time of People Are Living There is only 90 minutes, the play covers a much greater span of time. There are no scene breaks, and the pacing is often so plodding that I actually felt as though I had spent as many hours watching the characters as had elapsed in their world. Be that as it may, the compressed time frame is quite interesting dramaturgically and is particularly poignant towards the end of the play, when Milly realizes that she’s gone through the entire day — including her own birthday party — without ever changing out of her robe and curlers. The sadness and ennui of Fugard’s characters is clearly expressed in that moment, but it’s still not enough to redeem this mediocre production.