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Little Bear Ridge Road

 To me, the most exciting scene in "Little Bear Ridge Road" happens early. 


Ethan is visiting his dead father's house; he wants to see if there are items that could be sold. (He is particularly interested in whether or not a buzzsaw is still functional. A Tony Award should be available to Laurie Metcalf just because of the interesting things she does with the phrase "checking on that buzzsaw" ....)

It's never easy to "divide the estate." Ethan clearly wants some kind of healing moment at the house--and this moment is not going to happen. There is nothing in the house that can be sold. The buzzsaw won't "deliver." As Ethan becomes increasingly agitated, we know this scene isn't headed to a happy place. The tension mounts. Aunt Sarah wanders into the kitchen--then immediately returns. She is troubled. There is a dead cat in the kitchen, and evidence suggests that it was a corpse even while Ethan's dad was still alive (and playing the role of caretaker).

This feels surprising and inevitable. The rotting cat is a stand-in for Ethan himself. Ethan could have died while enduring his father's "care." Also, Sarah allowed the cat to die--just as she allowed the child Ethan to suffer. Just when we imagine that the awkwardness can't reach new heights, Sarah has a minute of derangement. She is trying to describe an odd episode of a TV sitcom--an experimental episode--something about a hole that opens in the middle of the universe. But she becomes confused; the hole makes an appearance in her own life, and she cannot separate herself from the fictional characters on the TV. Ethan can sense that something is seriously wrong with Sarah--while Sarah herself is shrewd enough to sweep the momentary weirdness under the rug. If Ethan takes time to consider what is happening, he will have to accept that Sarah is just a flawed human being. She has weaknesses. When she neglected him, in his childhood, she was just being a person. People are flawed.

I'm so pleased I had a chance to see this play before its early closing. I'd never seen one of Samuel D. Hunter's works. Add me to the list of fans.
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