The Shadow Box
| The Shadow Box | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Michael Cristofer |
| Characters | Maggie Beverly Felicity Agnes Brian Joe Mark The Interviewer Steve |
| Date premiered | March 31, 1977 |
| Place premiered | Morosco Theatre New York City, New York |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | Three cottages of a large hospital |
| IBDB profile | |
The Shadow Box is a play written by actor Michael Cristofer. The play made its Broadway debut on March 31, 1977. The original cast included Simon Oakland as Joe, Laurence Luckinbill as Brian, Mandy Patinkin as Mark, Geraldine Fitzgerald as Felicity, and Vincent Spano as Steve.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
The play takes place over twenty four hours, in three separate vacation cabins on the grounds of a large hospital, in America. Within the three cabins our three patients, Joe, Brian and Felicity are living with their respective families as they have reached the end of their treatment and have agreed to be part of a psychological scheme where they live within the hospital grounds and have interviews with a psychiatrist.
Act One
It is morning. The play opens with Joe sat in the interview area talking to the interviewer. We are introduced to the notion that he is dying and that his family are about to arrive, whom he hasn’t seen for most of his treatment. ‘The interviewer’ acts as a tool for each of the patients and their families to relay their feelings about their situation; an outside entity were our characters can speak bluntly without taking into consideration the feelings of the person they are talking to. As the act continues we are introduced into each of the families at the centre of our story. Joe’s wife and son arrive, Maggie and Steve, and it quickly becomes apparent that Maggie is avoiding dealing with the prospect of her future without Joe and refuses to enter their cabin, while Steve has no idea of his father’s impending death. Brian is then introduced to the audience. We see that he is taking an aloof approach to his illness and that he wants to live each day until the last and that, rather than skirt the issues, he confronts them with a dark humour. His young gay lover Mark is with him at the camp and as the act continues his ex wife Beverly arrives in a glamorous fashion adding a third dynamic to their story. The third family is Felicity, an elderly woman and her daughter Agnes. From the onset we see that Felicity falls in and out of the real world; sometimes away with the fairies at others having poignant moments of lucidity. Agnes is the perfect caretaker and her reserved disposition contrasted with her mother’s often hysterical insanity provides moments that are both heartbreaking and yet extremely funny in the same second. The Act brings us straight into the middle of these characters lives. It is for the most part just a normal day in their world and it is within the individuality of the characters that the story lies. The act flows seamlessly between the serious and the humorous often not even stopping for a beat in between. It becomes apparent from the first act that they are each radically different people but weaving them together is that they each have the same future; whether they are terminal or not. As the act ends Joe and Maggie are beginning to really talk, Agnes is struggling to connect to her mother, Brian and Beverly are dancing.
Act Two
Act two picks up from were act one ends, it is nearing evening. Joe is still coaxing Maggie to come into the cabin, Brian and Beverly are reminiscing while Mark becomes frustrated by his lovers jollity, Agnes begins to talk to the interviewer. As the act continues we begin to see the cracks within Brian’s brutal forthrightness about his illness and Marks real feelings about his death, while Beverly
provides some raw insight within her seemingly scattered exterior. Joe and Maggie continue to struggle to have a real conversation about their future. Agnes reveals a secret about her sister Claire, that died in an accident and since Agnes has been writing letters to her mother from her sister, and the interviewer presents her with some hard questions. We begin more and more to understand the lives of our characters before their illness and, as a result, their current situation becomes more poignant. There are some hard conversations, some emotional fractures and as ever moments of sincere humour. The beauty of the play is that by the end of the Act no moral conclusions have been drawn, no one has died, no one is going to live forever but what we have seen has been real, has been a reality for so many people and we are left not thinking about our impending death but what we will do with this ‘moment’ that we have to live.
[edit] Productions
The play opened on March 31, 1977 at the Morosco Theatre[1]and closed on December 31, 1977, after 315 performances.[2]
The production was directed by Gordon Davidson with scenery by Ming Cho Lee, costumes by Bill Walker, lighting by Ronald Wallace, production stage manager Franklin Keysar, associate producers Philip Getter and Bernard Stuchin, and press by Betty Lee Hunt, Maria Cristina Pucci, and Fred Hoot. The show's cast featured Josef Sommer (Interviewer), Simon Oakland (Joe), Vincent Stewart (Steve), Joyce Ebert (Maggie), Laurence Luckinbill (Brian), Mandy Patinkin (Mark), Patricia Elliot (Beverly), Rose Gregorio (Agnes), and Geraldine Fitzgerald (Felicity). Mary Carver replaced Fitzgerald on April 30, 1977 and Clifton James replaced Oakland on May 23, 1977.[3]
[edit] Film adaptation
Cristofer adapted the play for a television movie in 1980, directed by Paul Newman. It went on to win a Golden Globe and nominations for three Emmy Awards
[edit] Awards and nominations
- Awards
- Nominations
[edit] References
- ^ Barnes, Clive. "Stage: Inside 'The Shadow Box'" The New York Times (abstract), April 1, 1977, p.50
- ^ "'Shadow Box' Going Out With the Old Year" The New York Times (abstract), December 22, 1977, p.57
- ^ "'The Shadow Box', 1977 listing" InternetBroadwayDatabase, accessed November 24, 2011
- Napierkowski, Marie Rose ed. (January 2006). "The Shadow Box: Introduction". Drama for Students. vol. 15. Detroit: Gale. http://www.enotes.com/shadow-box/introduction. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
[edit] External links
- The Shadow Box at the Internet Broadway Database
- The Shadow Box (1994 revival) at the Internet Broadway Database
- The Shadow Box at the Internet Movie Database
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