By Deanna Dement Myers
The Heath’ – Written by Lauren Gunderson. Directed by Artistic Director Sean Daniels. Featuring Miranda Barnett and George Judy. The creative team includes Tanya Orellana, Scenic Designer; Miranda Kau Giurleo, Costume Designer; Maria Cristina Fusté, Lighting Designer; Danny Erdberg, Sound Designer; Seaghan McKay, Projection Designer; Maegan Conroy, Production Stage Manager. Playing at the Merrimack Repertory Theater February 13 to March 10.
“I fear I am not in my perfect mind.”
Guilt is a universal feeling, as is love, conflict, and the realization that some choices are hard to make. Lauren Gunderson’s newest play, The Heath, makes its world premiere at the Merrimack Repertory Theater. The characters are Gunderson herself, played beautifully by Miranda Barnett, and her Paw-Paw, KD, played by the formidable and likeable George Judy. The Lauren in the play is a Southern transplant musician and writer, who wrestles with the realization that her beloved grandfather is falling further and further into Alzheimer’s disease. As he loses more of his most recent memories, Lauren delves deeper into his personal history. She draws on everything from Shakespeare to Bluegrass to understand the man she thought she knew. She seeks to close the gap between what she needs him to be and who he has become.
The lens through which she sees her grandfather changes as she realizes that they no longer share the same memories of each other. Searching for insight, Lauren grasps onto King Lear as an archetype of a powerful figure who destroys his relationships with his young daughters. Paw-Paw transforms himself into a masterful portrayal of Lear, and Lauren casts herself as Cordelia, Gonerill, or even the Fool. The metaphor doesn’t fit perfectly, and Lauren struggles to find a way to make sense of her feelings, both of intense love, and uneasy revulsion.
One of the ways she finds connection to her grandfather is through music. Four original songs debut in the play, which Barnett sweetly sings and accompanies herself on the banjo. Other music in the performance are bluegrass songs familiar enough to the audience that many sung along. It’s this exploration of memory and connection that allows the audience to follow Lauren on her journey as she confronts her assumptions about the illness and her anger at what it has taken away from her.
The scenery and projection provide depth to the story Gunderson is telling. We are transported to the topography of a deteriorating brain, and swept up into the storm that rages for Lear and in Lauren’s emotions. The lighting design creates the illusion that the gentle Appalachian landscape morphs into a desolate, windswept English heath. Projected photographs and writings from Paw-Paw’s past reveal the loss Lauren experiences and the damage Alzheimer wreaks on a family.
Ultimately, Gunderson creates a story of self-examination in the harsh light of self-pity, sorrow and eventual awareness that relationships are not static. It takes a while for Lauren to circle back to the love she knows her grandfather has for her, and she is asking a lot of the audience to be patient with her overwrought excuses for bad behavior. While the ending song, Storm Still, is an apology and love letter to her grandfather, I have the feeling that Gunderson knows that it is a little too little, a little too late. Still, The Heath manages to be a soul-stirring story of redemption, love, madness, and the science of memory. For tickets, go to mrt.org or contact the MRT Box Office at 978-654-4678.
