Family secrets, marital intrigue and losing one’s sanity are at the heart of Island City Stage’s production of Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” opening Thursday, Jan. 16 and running through Sunday, Feb. 9 at the Wilton Manors theater.
Directed by Michael Leeds, Carbonell and Silver Palm award-winner Patti Gardner plays Agnes, Tom Wahl, also a Carbonell and Silver Palm award winner plays Tobias, Betty Ann Hunt Strain takes on the role of Claire, Margery Lowe is Edna, Christopher Dreeson is Harry and Sabrina Lynn Gore plays Julia.
In the three-act play, audiences meet Agnes and Tobias, a wealthy, middle-aged couple whose complacency is shattered when unexpected houseguests Harry and Edna disrupt their lives with a free-floating anxiety. Mix-in Agnes’ witty, yet alcoholic, sister Claire and their troubled daughter, Julia, and you have all the trappings of a dysfunctional household.
“I’ve always loved Albee’s ‘ Delicate Balance,’ ” says Leeds, associate artistic director of Island City Stage. “Albee’s play is a ‘brutal comedy of manners.’”
The title, he says, refers to themes of life and death, love and hate, sanity and insanity and the relationship between the main protagonists, Tobias and Agnes.
“Everyone can relate to these themes,” says Leeds. “The characters deal with long-term relationship issues, sexual challenges, friendship and betrayal. In the play, the question is how to balance these more dramatic themes with levity and how to bring out the humanity in each of the characters.”
The theater, while known for producing works that feature LGBTQ+ themes and characters, is expanding and branching out, according to Leeds. And, while Albee himself was gay, this was not a factor in choosing to mount the play, according to the director. There is, he says, a backstory about a gay character but it isn’t central to the play.
Leeds says “A Delicate Balance” has been on his “bucket list” to direct.
“The actors and story line will capture the viewers and it’s something our audiences will enjoy, even if it’s different from what they’ve seen here before.”
The play is an ambitious undertaking, says the director, with its complex characters, profound themes, high levels of emotion and dialogue-dense scenes.
With themes of love and loss, the fragility of human emotions and relationships, loss of potential and opportunities, regret over paths not taken, escaping reality and accepting one’s fate, the play spans the gamut of human emotions. Despite the serious nature of the play’s larger themes, Leeds says “A Delicate Balance” is also funny and absurd with comic relief provided by the aforementioned Claire.
Leeds says that although he first saw the Pulitzer Prize winning play when he was younger, now in middle-age, he can relate to the themes better, having lived life.
He quotes the Dylan Thomas poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night:
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
“The play has a similar theme,” he says. “It resonates for me more at this age and will resonate as well for our audience.”
Gardner, who plays Agnes, returns to Island City Stage, where she last appeared in “The Goldberg Variations” in 2017, and quotes from the play, “Everything becomes . . . too late, finally. You know it’s going on . . . Up on the hill; you can see the dust and hear the cries, and the steel . . . But you wait; and time happens. When you do go, sword, shield… finally… there’s nothing there… save rust; bones; and the wind.”
The passage indicates the resignation and helplessness which sets in later in life to those who narrow their choices early on (like Agnes and Tobias), only to wake up one morning to discover that all the choices they have avoided are no longer options and the options they may still have are no longer viable.
“Over the course of a lifetime, there’s loss and regret and things happen,” says Gardner. “My character deals with these issues and has to learn to move on with her life.”
Her first time appearing in an Albee play, Gardner says she is “thrilled to play Agnes,” even though the play is “intense with lots of layers.”
She is familiar with the play, which premiered on Broadway in 1966 starring Hume Cronyn as Tobias, Jessica Tandy as Agnes, Rosemary Murphy as Claire, Henderson Forsythe as Harry, Carmen Mathews as Edna and Marian Seldes as Juia.
Gardner says she saw the 1973 film version starring Katharine Hepburn in the lead role as Agnes and says that while times may change, themes of family and family dynamics are universal and timeless – and still relatable.
Likewise, Wahl, a Fort Lauderdale resident, who plays Tobias, saw the play 25 years ago at The Caldwell Theatre Company in Boca Raton. At the time, he says, like Leeds, he didn’t relate to the character or to the themes of loss and regret.
“I didn’t quite ‘get it,’” he says. “I didn’t understand the complexity of the play and its characters as I do now.”
The themes, he says, resonate more with someone who’s had more life experience.
From the moment the curtain rises and the lights come up, audiences get a sense of something roiling beneath the surface, says Wahl.
“It’s like a tsunami; building and building under the surface,” he says. “No one knows how to deal with all the things that are happening. It’s that delicate balance between Agnes and Tobias,” he says.
Much of what is portrayed is unsaid between the couple, according to Wahl.
“My character, Tobias, doesn’t deal with life very well. His way of dealing is not dealing. He is ‘retired’ in every way and Agnes is the opposite.”
For Wahl, the challenge in playing Tobias is ensuring his character comes across as a “fully-formed human.” During rehearsals, Wahl says he spends time examining his character’s feelings and motivation.
“Tobias is full of regret for missed opportunities in his life,” he says. “He wonders, ‘Did I make the right decision? Does it even matter at this point? How do I live with the choices I’ve made and learn to be happy?’’’
And, translating Albee’s dialogue into colloquial conversation presents another challenge.
“Albee writes in a poetic, non-linear fashion using metaphor and colorful language,” says Wahl. “The characters often don’t say what they mean and don’t mean what they say.”
Agnes, who is concerned about “maintaining balance,” regains her composure and control, while every now and then, her fury seeps out in other, non-constructive ways.
For Gardner, playing the role of Agnes presents a few challenges, including mastering the language of Agnes’s upper-crust patrician New England manner and bearing. A complicated character who tries to maintain order amidst the chaos, Agnes endures injury, pain, loss and a vulnerability, which makes her human.
“I try to portray her in a way where all these nuances of character come across on stage,” Gardner says.
And, while the roles can be challenging for all the actors, both Gardner and Wahl express appreciation for Leeds’ direction.
“Michael is the blueprint for a director,” says Gardner. “He understands actors and how to dig deep on a script, especially Albee’s.”
“He’s smart, collaborative and a master at communication,” she says. “I learn from him every day.”
What can audiences expect?
“It’s a fascinating evening of theater filled with both laughter and high emotion,” says Leeds. “And, of course, great acting.”
“It’s a play everyone can understand and relate to,” he says. “It’s a thought-provoking play and one you will be talking about on your way home from the theater – and, what’s better than that?”
IF YOU GO
WHAT :
Island City Stage’s
“A Delicate Balance”
WHERE:
Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Hwy., Wilton Manors
WHEN:
7 p.m., Thursday, 8 p.m., Friday, 2 and 5 p.m. Saturday (no matinee on Saturday, Jan. 18), 5 p.m., Sunday. Opens Thursday, Jan. 16 through Sunday, Feb. 9.
A Mimosa Sunday Brunch sponsored by Judith Paskoski takes place on Sunday, Jan. 26. A Women’s Night sponsored by Leslie Fine takes place on Friday, Jan. 31. The show runs for two hours and 40 minutes with two intermissions.
TICKETS:
$43 and $48; brunch tickets $60.
INFORMATION:
(954) 928-9800 or
www.islandcitystage.org
