Bruce Graham’s “Outgoing Tide” by PTC (3rd review)

The Outgoing Tide is an effective play about an important subject. Notwithstanding its trenchant humor, it's a serious story that echoes Death of a Salesman with its focus on wife, son and a man nearing the end of life.

The man that playwright Bruce Graham created seems to be a virtual cousin of The Philly Fan, his iconic figure enacted in many venues by Tom McCarthy. Gunner Concannon wears a Phillies baseball cap and talks of growing up as a South Philly Catholic. Now he has retired to Chesapeake Bay, and he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

The strength of the play lies in the personalities of Gunner (played by Richard Poe), his wife (Robin Moseley) and his son (Anthony Lawton). Graham's script demonstrates that people who are losing their memory can still retain flashes of cogency and humor. In addition, Graham has constructed a clever plot. Maybe too clever, given the subject.

In the play's opening scene, you see, Gunner doesn't recognize his son or his wife. Yet later on, he remembers the agenda for a family conference that he called. Then he outlines a detailed suicide plan because he refuses to face humiliating deterioration in an institution. And he executes that plan precisely.

Recognizing loved ones

This scenario makes for effective drama, but it's counter to what I've observed with the member of my family who had Alzheimer's, as well as what I've heard from physicians who've treated it.

Loved ones are recognized by Alzheimer's patients until the late stages of the disease— and by that time the sufferer would lack the ability and the awareness that Gunner displays. Also, patients are aware that they know these family members; they simply can't identify them.

It's common for a father to talk with his son and mistake him for a long-lost brother. Or for his own father. When asked, "Do you know who I am?" the Alzheimer's victim will reply: "Of course I do" but won't be able to particularize the relationship.

In the play's finely crafted opening scene, Gunner displays no recognition that he's ever met his son before.

Any exposure of the tragedy of Alzheimer's is surely welcome. But the implausibility nags at me.

Endearing "'cripple'

The wisecracks about Alzheimer's, however, didn't bother me as they did Marshall Ledger in his BSR review. One of my best friends had polio and she used to wave her crutches and make nasty jokes about being a "cripple." She was an endearing pal. I feel the same about Gunner Concannon.

The play benefits from the strong direction of James J. Christy, the bayside home devised by David Gordon and the autumnal lighting by R. Lee Kennedy.♦


To read another review by Marshall A. Ledger, click here.
To read a related comment by Kelly George, click here.
To read Steve Cohen's review of the Delaware Theatre Company production, click here.