Beautiful Music

In Tom Kempinski’s Duet for One, there is terminal illness, discussions of suicide and depression, talk of the transcendent power of great music, and powerful speeches about the necessary triumph of intrinsic good over pervasive evil. So after seeing Milwaukee Chamber Theater’s stirring production this weekend, why is the image that stays with me one of a man watering a few potted plants?

Because director Paul Barnes and the rest of the creative team behind the MCT’s production imbue this simple action with rich meaning, which is what great theater is all about. Duet is a bit of a two-person hurricane – Stephanie Abrahams swirling erratically around the still center of Dr. Alfred Feldmann. You can fault Kempinski for making Feldmann a bit of a psychotherapy cliché – Austrian accent and all. But Michael Wright finds his essential qualities: stillness that masks a tenacious sense of will and control.

Which he needs. Abrahams is a world-class concert violinist who has started showing the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (the play is loosely based on the experience of cellist Jacqueline Du Pre). She comes to Feldmann at the request of her husband (an equally esteemed composer), but she doesn’t want to be there. She’s handling everything just fine, thank you, with a new life-plan consisting of teaching and playing “secretary” to her husband’s career. On subsequent visits, though, we see Abrahams go through various stages of grief, anger, resignation.

But Duet transcends the trajectory of the typical “coming-to-terms” story. Which brings us back to those house plants. It occurs just before the play’s final scene, just after we’ve seen Feldmann’s calm façade crack and reveal the drive and passion behind his life’s calling. Abrahams, who has lost her singular joy and purpose in life, should fight hard against the forces of despair, he says. The two of them are united in battle. Tragedy, it seems, can be defeated. So when Wright picks up his watering can and meticulously gives Dr. Feldmann’s plants just the right amount of water, you see the fierceness of his convictions. And his calm faith in the ability of reason, competence and care to prevail. It’s just one of many beautifully understated moments in Wright’s performance.

As Abrahams, Jacque Troy finds her character’s stillness in that last scene, which makes it all the more shattering. Until then, she beautifully captures Abrahams’ unsteady journey on this emotional roller coaster. Not only does she make us feel the disease’s effect on her body, but you can see her burrow, scene by scene, into the essence of her condition and her predicament. Mask after mask is stripped away, eventually revealing the dark truth that Feldmann simply cannot accept.