I left the opening night of FUSION Theatre Company’s production of “Madagascar” by J. T. Rogers with a confusing array of responses. The play is a trio of intersecting and overlapping monologues spoken by three characters in the same hotel room in Rome but in three different time periods. The minimal plot centers around two absent characters, one of whose mysterious disappearance impacts the others. Ultimately, I find the play intellectually challenging but not fully satisfying as theater.
 

Let me try to unravel this conundrum. The most fully drawn character is Lilian, mother of twins June and Paul (missing) and wife to absent economist Arthur. Wealthy and privileged, Lilian often took her children to Rome where they stayed in the elegant hotel that serves as the play’s setting. Lilian speaks five years in the past. Daughter June speaks “a few days ago.” She works as a tour guide in Rome and searches for her brother. The third speaker is Nathan, the play’s survivor, a rumpled economist and close friend of Arthur’s. Nathan had a long-term affair with Lilian, and he speaks his monologues in the present. There is a sort of mathematical pleasure that comes from piecing together the elements of the narrative that the three characters reveal, like solving a complex puzzle or riddle.

The story that emerges is one of loss and the need for expiation among all the characters. Lonely and bored, Lilian found comfort with Nathan, a pale reflection of her husband. Her children discover the affair (we are not told how) and estrange themselves. Lilian questions what she should have done differently. To me, however, the arithmetical precision of the plot revelations does not add up to emotional involvement. Symbols abound, but when playwright Rogers approaches the frighteningly raw family dynamics of, say, Tennessee Williams, he stops short.

Since virtually all the speeches are delivered directly to the audience, there is little interaction among the characters. Director Dave Florek has not found a way to provide sufficient variety in the discourse. Costume designer Cassidy Zachary appropriately dresses Martin Rader as Nathan in a mismatched coat and slacks that look as though he has slept in them. Rader’s Nathan remains basically clueless about the other characters—acted upon rather than making choices. Jacqueline Reid, clad in a white halter dress, plays June the nature of whose relationship with her twin brother, though central to the story, remains mysterious. Laurie Thomas puts together a disturbing portrayal of Lilian—self-indulgent yet martyred to motherhood. Without their fellow actors to play off of, all three actors have moments of declamation—portentous pauses and forced emphases—in their monologues.

“Madagascar” is an important new play that does more telling than showing. “

Madagascar” by J. T. Rogers, 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday through March 9 at The Cell, 700 First Street NW. General public $25; seniors, students $20. Reservations 766-9412

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