Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, MA
www.berkshiretheatregroup.org
through October 22, 2017
by Barbara Stroup
Photo by Emma Rothenberg-Ware |
Renting a lakeside cabin for a week should be a simple
transaction, but for the two characters in “Lost Lake,” it becomes a learning
experience. Their lives start intersecting when city-based Veronica, making
summer plans for her kids, inspects Hogan’s lakeside cabin. She sees that he is
an overeager advice-giver in a near-subsistence existence. Unimpressed, she
rents it anyway. Over the course of her week’s stay and a visit six months
later, these two reveal their back stories to each other.
David Auburn’s two-character play is never wordy; it is
serious when it needs to be with interjections of humor just when they are
needed. Quentin Maré brings the perfect voice and physicality to the part of
Hogan – it seems to have been written for him. His gradual self-revelations
allow the audience to grow into a relationship with the character, to
appreciate his torments and see his vulnerabilities. Maré’s timing is
exquisite.
Lynnette R. Freeman’s Veronica is less volatile but still
finds herself suppressing frustration with Hogan – the audience learns that she
has her own set of problems. Hogan’s presence both unsettles and saves her.
Honesty between them is the result of these struggles, and admiration from the
audience as well.
The clever set design has three entrance doors and ample
space; the characters’ movements seem appropriate and not excessive. The
backdrop shows a dreamy lake view where the audience can imagine the dock Hogan
promises to repair and Veronica’s children splashing in the water. Time and
seasonal changes are signaled clearly but unobtrusively by the writer and the
director.
This play is a quiet triumph of character writing and
narrative and a fitting finale to the season. Next year, Berkshire Theatre
Festival celebrates 90 years of bringing live theatre to Stockbridge residents
and visitors; one looks forward eagerly to plays of this quality in 2018.