HartfordStage, Hartford, CT
www.hartfordstage.org
through October 5, 2014
by Jarice Hanson
The publicity for HartfordStage’s production of Elizabeth
Egloff’s new play, “Ether Dome”, uses the term “exhilarating,” leading the
reader to suspect hyperbole. Instead, the word is an apt description for the
energetic, engrossing story that unfolds. Egloff tells the story of four men
whom were instrumental in the quest for relieving human suffering and what
might be considered the “birth” of modern health care. In the process, humanity
vs. opportunism, science vs. superstition, and change vs. the status quo become
interwoven themes.
Can the invention of anesthetic be attributed to only one
man? Should Hartford dentist Dr. Horace Wells who used laughing gas to calm his
patients get the credit? Should it be his apprentice, the ne’re do well William
Morton, who attempted to patent the gas? Was it Dr. Charles Jackson, who
favored science over superstition, or Dr. John Collins Warren, the founder of
Mass General, who feared change? As the story unfolds, each of these men
undergoes personal transformation as the medical world shifts. Egloff writes
that Wells, for example, may have been the inspiration for Robert Louis
Stevenson’s novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Does that pique your interest?
The excellent ensemble cast is complimented by a brilliant
scene and projection design by James Youmans who transforms the stage from the
surgical space of the Ether Dome (which still exists at Mass General Hospital)
to a variety of locations from Boston to Washington D.C., including a visually
stunning representation of a New York subway platform. But the master of the
show is director Michael Wilson who moves his cast through a fast-paced two
hours and forty minutes of human drama and comedy as the personal stories
unfold.
Ether Dome is a gift to an audience who appreciate the
occasional joke about Hartford and Boston, but who find the real story of a
scientific breakthrough as mesmerizing as the drama and history that unfolds.
HartfordStage has produced a winner with this very original, fascinating
theatrical experience.
