Lee Blessing's Hostage Drama Two Rooms at the New Workshop Theatre, April 10–14

Blindfolded throughout the play, Professor Michael Wells (Paul C. Newport) is held hostage in Beirut.

    "It's both a love story and a debate," explains director D. Wambui Richardson of Lee Blessing's Two Rooms, a play set in the turbulent 1980s that comes to the New Workshop Theatre April 10–14.

    As the title promises, there are "two rooms" in this taut psychodrama— named by Time Magazine as "Best Play of the Year" in 1988. It opens with hostage Michael Wells (played by Paul C. Newport), a history professor at American University in Beirut, Lebanon, blindfolded in his room, a small windowless cell. The other room lies across the world: the professor's study back in the United States. As the months turn into years and her husband's fate hangs precariously, Mike's wife, Lanie (Mary Claire Dunn), strips the room to the bare walls in order to feel closer to him. For her, a thin mat she has dragged into his office represents "all the corners of the room," and where she imagines she can speak with—and touch—her missing lover.

    "These two people, who are separated by an ocean are still able to make their love transcend time and space," says Richardson, who chose the play as his MFA project in directing, in part, because of its fierce emotional power and continuing political relevance.

    Written by Lee Blessing in 1988, the play tells a very personal story within the context of global events. Sharing a backdrop of contemporary global events with Blessing's 1987 Broadway play A Walk in the Woods, Two Rooms deals with what Richardson calls "the three arguments": the perspective of the individuals , the perspective of the public, and the government.

 

Lanie (Mary Claire Dunn), flanked by her State Department handler Ellen VanOss (Joscelyn Wilmouth) and the tenacious freelance reporter, Walker Harris (Michael Cenname).

    While the four characters in Blessing's play may represent separate poles of experience, their humanity and humor mark them as more than mere caricature. Lainie, befitting her status as a wife of a hostage, receives regular visits by Ellen VanOss, an officious State Department liaison (Joscelyne Wilmouth), who makes a good show of representing the government's position while also betraying a certain amount of sympathy. Lanie is also talking to Walker Harris (Michael Cenname), a crusading reporter who wants to publicize the Wells' plight and get a good story for himself.

As months go by, Lanie becomes frustrated by the excuses and rationalizations given to her for why the government refuses to negotiate for the release of her husband. When Walker is prevented from going to Beirut by the State Department, Lanie lashes out against government policies, triggering a firestorm in the media and triggering a tragic series of events which brings the play to its startling conclusion.

    For D. Wambui Richardson, a student in the MFA Director's program, shepherding the play into life has been absorbing work. "There are two rooms, but we only have one set," he explains. "How we made the rooms distinct, through blocking and lighting, was part of the challenge." Set in the 1980s, visuals in the production include a slideshow of contemporary images—including the faces of real-life hostages and their Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Shiite Muslim captors.

D. Wambui Richardson, director of Two Rooms.

      Richardson, 25, is the youngest MFA director producing a show this year. Before coming to Brooklyn College, this native of New worked in theater in Baltimore and New Jersey after graduating from his hometown's Dillard University.

      This New Theatre Workshop production will also feature a "museum" of world events in the 1980s, assembled by dramaturge Gillian Levene, which will feature pictures and artifacts from the decade along with testimonies by the actors on aspects of researching and creating the play.

     "Because the play talks a lot about Islam and Shiite Muslims from a particular perspective," says Richardson, "it was important, especially during these times of war, to have something describing what was happening in the Islamic world during the 1980s."

    Two Rooms is two hours long, and includes one fifteen minute intermission. At the conclusion of each matinee performance on Saturday and Sunday, the cast and director will hold a "talkback" session on stage, where the audience can ask questions.

    This eagerly anticipated show will be staged at the 120-seat New Workshop Theatre downstairs from Whitman Hall, Thursday through Saturday, April 10–13, 8 p.m., with special matinee performances on Saturday and Sunday, April 13 and 14, 2 p.m. Tickets are $5. For more information, call (718) 951-4500, or visit the Theater Department Web page.