An empty generic hotel room -- a blank canvas for countless probabilities. Guests register into the hotel with personal dramas, filling the empty room with tears, laughs, fear and joy. However, Signature Theater Company's production of A.R. Gurney's The Wayside Motor Innbrings a creative twist to the hotel. Gradually the room becomes a busy hive with an aggregate of ten characters’ individual stories and conversations, crisscrossing each other as they move around the room to the beds, the balcony or bathroom.
"What's going on?" Does it seem disoriented? No, it turns out to be surprisingly captivating, despite some inevitable plotlines and a dated 1970's time period. Pulling off this conceit is credited to Gurney's skill, a versatile cast and the astute direction of Lila Neugebauer.
The Wayside Motor Inn was first produced in the 1977, and everything is 70's style, including social attitudes. The first occupant is restless Ray (Quincy Dunn-Baker), ready to find a companion for the evening. Later, he meets his match when he hits on a forthright hotel waitress, played with snappy assurance by Jenn Lyon. Before his story emerges however, a middle-aged couple enters: Lizbeth Mackay, excellent as the dithering Jessie, fussing over her ailing husband, Frank (Jon DeVries). Jessie is anxious to visit their daughter's family and the new baby. Frank wants to rest.
A young couple in love, Phil (David McElwee) and Sally (Ismenia Mendes), registers, about to take "the big step" together, both eager but on different timetables. Sally needs some time to get in synch with her horny boyfriend.
By now, everything makes sense. Everyone is in the same hotel, same room but different floors. The city is Boston, made clear when a sullen Mark (Will Pullen) and his overbearing father Vince (Marc Kudisch) arrive, preparing for Mark's interview at Harvard. The last hotel guest is Andy (Kelly AuCoin), adding his impending divorce drama to the mix.
The idea of the simultaneous stories is fascinating, and the bittersweet stories are delivered with insightful performances. Director Lila Neugebauer keeps everything flowing. Some scenes have tighter immediacy than others, yet all move crisply along without interfering with other ongoing conversations.
The stories are familiar, so Neugebauer highlights their individualities, evoking the humor and the poignancy. For example, the contrast between jittery Jessie and Frank expands before our eyes. Jessie yearns for the family she once had and is desperate to see and hold her daughter's baby while her husband retreats within himself and his fearful angina.
Kudisch looms large as the controlling Vince who pushes his son, Mark, to follow his instructions for success in his Harvard interview. He brusquely dismisses the boy's desire to be a mechanic. Their antagonism grows from frustration to fury to accommodation.
The trauma of breaking up a family is heightened for Andy when his intense wife, Ruth (Rebecca Henderson), storms in, bringing their situation to an electrifying head. Scenic designer Andrew Lieberman's 70's-style set is reflected in the room's rust-colored bedspread, plaid walls, and TV with manual channel changer. Kaye Voyce designs period costumes with polyester shirts, culottes, mid-calf skirts.
These personal everyday dramas are reminders that the American Dream is not etched in stone. Finding connections to engage seems to be a clue to personal satisfaction, perhaps even happiness, and this current runs through every character, every situation
