“The Outgoing Tide” looks at a small family who is spending time at their seasonal home on the Chesapeake. The parents, Gunner and Peg, who have been married over 50 years, are visited by their only child, Jack.
The bucolic setting is perfect for a feel good summer play of a family getting together during the summer to heal minor emotional wounds. But, it’s not summer and the wounds are far from minor.
The play is set in autumn and Gunner’s life is entering dead winter. He has Alzheimer’s disease and it is advancing rapidly. He is cognizant enough to realize he has two choices – to enter a home and live the rest of his life in mental limbo depleting the finances of his family or to die a death with dignity.
It sounds as if “The Outgoing Tide” could be a senior version of “Who’s Life Is It Anyway?” Though it touches on the similar theme of death with dignity it is different. Since society does not believe in euthanasia, if Gunner is to die with dignity he must choose suicide.
This is not an angst-filled “will he or won’t he” play. Gunner has made his decision, thought things out, devised a way to secure his family’s financial well-being and as he says, “tied up all the loose ends.”
Playwright Bruce Graham has written an almost clinical depiction of the tragedy of Alzheimer’s by showing Gunner mistaking the microwave for the tv, visiting an impersonal, antiseptic nursing home, facing the fear of wearing diapers and the desperation that follows a lost train of thought. It’s sadly accurate, but rarely is it maudlin.
Graham understands that often major life experiences have to be made without emotional baggage attached. He takes great pain to show through flashbacks what was - is no longer. Gunner was an imperfect man who was emotionally distant from his son and has grown aloof from his wife.
Because Gunner lacks emotion so does the play, and often its absence is missed. One longs to see the family caring about the loss of the person as much as they analyze the correctness of the decision. There are times where the choice to live or die is less traumatic than if they were making a decision to relocate.
It’s not that the characters don’t care about each other - they do. John Noble plays Gunner as a gruff man who wants to make right the distance he created with others. It’s a solid performance of a man who lived an isolated life in the midst of a family. Joanne Westervelt creates a warm Peg. She is a gentle woman who long ago realized she had no control over her husband and accepts him for who he is.
Kevin Gardner creates the most complicated character as the grown son Jack. He is unable to embrace either side of the debate because he was raised in an emotional vacuum. Growing up he felt he was an outsider and an intrusion. He knows he disappointed his father and is uncertain about his relationship with his mother. In a serious play, a lot of humor comes from the way their parents tormented young Jack with wild stories designed to train him.
“The Outgoing Tide” is a thoughtful play about an important topic that is neglected in our society. It’s directed by Carol Max, who is also the company’s artistic director. It’s clear she understands the complexity of the subject and the need to discuss such hot-button topics.
“The Outgoing Tide” at Curtain Call Theatre, 210 Old Loudon Road, Latham. Through August 2. Performances 7:30 p.m. Thursdays & Fridays, 8 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays.
Bob Goepfert is the arts editor for the Troy Record.
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