IT’S NOT EASY BEING A MUSE
SIGHT UNSEEN
Directed by Jeri Pitcher; written by Donald Margulies; scenic design by
Justin Elie; costumes designed by Kati Mulcahy
With: Mike Anthony, Sally Wood, R. Chris Reeder, and Jessica Pohly
At the Theater at Monmouth in Monmouth, Maine
Performed on July 21 and August 14, 2007
Reviewed by Laurie Meunier Graves
In
ancient Greece, the muses were nine goddesses whose job was to inspire
artists, and each goddess presided over a specific art form: comedy,
tragedy, lyric poetry, love poetry, dance, epic poetry, astronomy, sacred
poetry, and history. How else to explain the will-o’-the-wisp nature of
artistic inspiration and talent as well as the magic that seems to accompany
making a work of art? Surely art must be divinely inspired, mixed with a
strong dose of Eros to keep the artist energized. As with many concepts, the
idea of the muse has changed over time, variously influenced by
Christianity, secularism, and feminism. In The Lives of the Muse: Nine
Women and the Artists They Inspired, Francine Prose observes “that every
historical period re-creates the muse in its own image. Each era endows the
muse with qualities, virtues, and flaws that the epoch and its artists
need…” Nowadays, muses are not considered divine but rather all too human.
Most of the time, the muse is female, and the artist is male, which makes
feminism raise a questioning, “ironic” eyebrow. Prose goes on to write that
the male artist is not terribly concerned with “the challenge of
staying fascinating or attractive” to his female muse. Instead, he is
preoccupied by his own feelings, and “the muses are merely the instruments
that…churn up the weather in a way that may speed and facilitate [his]
labors.”
It’s a
job that most sensible women would shun the way a cat shuns water, but,
Patricia, in the play Sight Unseen, is not a sensible woman, at least
not in her younger days. She’s vivacious, romantic, impulsive, and
enthusiastic, ready to live deeply and passionately and perhaps unwisely.
Patricia, a nude model at an art college in New York, becomes intensely
attracted to Jonathan, one of the student artists, and with a few fits and
starts, he reluctantly acknowledges his attraction to her. He is Jewish, and
she is not, which means his mother will not approve.
But I’m
getting ahead of things because in fact the play begins in “a cold farmhouse
in Norfolk, England,” in 1985, seventeen years after Patricia and Jonathan
met in art college. Jonathan has become a famous artist, with a big show
opening in London, and Patricia has become a poor, bitter archeologist who
digs through rubbish all day. She has married Nick, also an archeologist,
and it doesn’t take long for the audience to realize that Patricia has
“settled for less” and is deeply unhappy. Jonathan, who hasn’t seen Patricia
since they parted ways, has called, and for reasons that become clear later
in the play, he has asked to come visit while he’s in England. Against her
better judgement, Patricia agrees, and the play opens with Jonathan’s
arrival. Jonathan meets Nick, who clearly loathes him, and his reunion with
Patricia isn’t much better. We can’t help but wonder: How did Jonathan and
Patricia ever connect? By jumping back and forth in time and by ending at
the beginning, the play shows us exactly how it happened, and the audience
comes to sympathize with both of them.
Even
though it might take a while, most people eventually get over a failed love
affair, but Patricia is not one of those people. Her lively nature belies a
fragility that will not allow her to “get over it.” As it turned out,
Patricia was once Jonathan’s muse, and it was a job she loved. The two years
she spent with Jonathan were the best two years of her life, and the rest
has been dull and gray in comparison. Although quite likely it wouldn’t have
mattered, no one ever told her that muses are often ruthlessly dumped as
soon as they stop providing inspiration.
At this
point, it would be easy to take a keen dislike to the self-centered
Jonathan, whose sense of artistic entitlement is astonishing. Jonathan
takes, and like most muses, Patricia gives, even though the price might be
too high. But then it comes out that Jonathan has his own issues, and they
are not insignificant. In his biography of the philosopher Isaiah Berlin,
Michael Ignatieff describes how Berlin had to braid being Russian, English,
and Jewish—a reconciliation of opposites, to say the least— into “the single
skein of his identity. ” Jonathan has a similar task, but in his case the
skein comprises being American, Jewish, and an artist. Those of us who have
faced such a task know how daunting and difficult it is and how it might
take a lifetime to achieve. Jonathan, after all, is barely into middle age,
and we can forgive him, even if Patricia cannot.
For
Sight Unseen to work, the fast-paced dialogue must be snappy, and the
two actors who play Patricia and Jonathan must reach a precarious balance of
desperation, self-centeredness, spark, and vulnerability. In the Theater of
Monmouth’s fine production of this intense, complex play, Sally Wood and
Mike Anthony, who respectively portray Patricia and Jonathan, achieve that
very balance. Wood’s Patricia is brittle and unhappy, a woman on the edge,
and when Jonathan makes his final, selfish demand, Wood’s response is
heartbreaking but not overdone. With exquisite timing and responses,
Anthony’s Jonathan is by turns open-faced and smug, an artist with the
self-assurance of having a waiting list of patrons who are willing to buy
“sight unseen” his yet-to-be-finished work. Yet Anthony shows how Jonathan
is also on the edge, even though he should be at the height of his powers.
His father’s death has left him adrift, and he can no longer find the
artistic inspiration that he once had.
Also
very good is R. Chris Reeder, as Patricia’s soft-spoken but far from
self-effacing husband. In his own way, he is as controlling as Jonathan, and
poor Patricia is caught between the two. Finally, there is Jessica Pohly,
who does an excellent job with the bright but arrogant Grete, a German
journalist who interviews Jonathan at an art gallery in London. The tension
between the journalist and the artist ricochets between humor and drama, but
by the end of the interview, nobody is laughing. All the actors come
together under the bright, capable direction of Jeri Pitcher, who is fast
becoming one of the best directors in Maine.
The Theater at Monmouth’s
Sight Unseen
illustrates
just how good modern theater can be when everything is in place. I only wish
the theater could offer a fall, spring, or winter season where such smaller
plays would be offered. Not to replace the summer season, of course, but to
augment it. But, there. I am grateful for what I have, and it is probably
greedy to wish for more. Still, a theater lover can wish…
