Dead Accounts: this dark at times jarring comedy moves swiftly under Geoff Gruson’s direction
Dead Accounts by Theresa Gruson, An Ottawa Little Theatre production directed by Geoff Gruson
If someone were to comb through the annals of theatre in search of truly irritating characters, Theresa Rebeck’s play, Dead Accounts, would provide a prize specimen.
The name of the guy is Jack and in Ottawa Little Theatre’s current production he’s been brought to manic, over-the-top life by cast member Phillip Merriman.
The first thing we learn about him is that he’s addicted to ice cream — not just any old ice cream but Cincinnati’s Graeter brand. So he has celebrated his nocturnal return to his home town by acquiring (through dubious means) an arm-full of cartons containing various flavours and then unloading them onto the table in the family kitchen.
It’s a noisy arrival. Jack clearly has a few other addictions as well, and Merriman’s performance is driven by a cardinal understanding of the role’s requirements. The play’s text allows him no inhibitions in fulfilling them” this is someone who can make others in his space cringe. And in these opening scenes they include his sister Lorna, played by Venetia Lawless, and his mother, portrayed by Jane Morris. They are seeing Jack at his most outrageous as he flails about this somewhat old-fashioned mid-west kitchen, tearing off one carton lid after another as he samples the contents and accompanying his frenetic behaviour with a profanity-laden ode to his favourite make of frosty delight.
You wonder whether Merriman has any place to go with such a character after this beginning. Well, it turns out that he does. At his worst, this Jack’s behaviour puts Hamlet and his antic disposition to shame. This returning son — mysteriously back home from the financial fleshpots of New York City — is an insensitive, self-absorbed, pill-popping, hyperactive, self-dramatizing, amoral jerk. Yet, as the play progresses, we are able to glimpse other aspects to his character — even possibly redemptive ones, although we shouldn’t hold our breath.
We eventually learn that Jack has embezzled a lot of money — some $27 million — and that he’s unrepentant about it, having convinced himself that he didn’t really steal it from anybody because it didn’t really belong to anybody. But he fails to convince his family despite having given them (and the audience) some unsettling insights into the more bizarre byways of Wall Street chicanery. All he’s really done is to make clear that he and the money, which he’s stowed away in the family freezer, have landed them with a major problem, one that transcends the previous major problems that he has saddled them with during his feckless journey through life.
Rebeck’s play does have the trappings of a dark comedy. And despite a structure that is at times jarringly episodic, it moves swiftly and entertainingly under Geoff Gruson’s direction. But the production also draws out other undercurrents. That family kitchen, its comfortable familiarity admirably conveyed in Tom Pidgeon’s design, is in marked contrast to the alien world that Jack has brought back with him. Indeed, Jack’s turbulent return to the family bosom is almost like a home invasion in cultural terms.
Yet ultimately, Dead Accounts is a play about a family — and more particularly its unbreakable bonds. There’s a comically endearing moment when sister Lorna, beautifully played by Venetia Lawless with her customary care for detail, sits across the table from her brother sharing some sort of beloved cheese concoction with him and being — well — sisterly. She is, of course, trying to make him behave but what’s most important about the scene is about how the familiar rhythms of family affection are taking over and holding firm despite everything. These siblings are still good friends.
So, in an unexpected way, Dead Account also qualifies as a piece about the resilience of family. The look of the play — exemplified in Tom Pidgeon’s design and Susan MacKinlay’s costumes — serves this purpose. So, crucially do the performances. Jane Morris, comically harassed but still with a reservoir of strength, is splendid as the mother. Heather Archibald is convincing as Jack’s estranged wife, an East Coast alien as uncomprehending of Jack’s family as they are of her. And Josh Sparks delivers an excellent characterization as Jack’s loyal but pragmatic best friend. In brief, a first-rate production of a sometimes problematic script.
Dead Accounts continues at Ottawa Little Theatre to March 3
Director: Geoff Gruson
Set: Tom Pidgeon
Lighting: John Solman
Sound: Bradford MacKinlay
Costumes: Susan MacKinlay
Cast:
Jack…………………………………………………….Phillip Merriman
Lorna…………………………………………………..Venetia Lawless
Barbara…………………………………………………Jane Morris
Phil……………………………………………………..Josh Sparks
Jenny…………………………………………………..Heather Archibald