InterAct's American Sublime

In the “American Wing” of a large unidentified museum, a middle-aged, middle-American couple contemplates Albert Bierstadt’s 1866 painting Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mount Rosalie while bemoaning the loss of their youth as well as their son who vanished on that very mountain. But was their youth really so glorious? Did their son really exist? Does Mount Rosalie really exist? Or is the storm on Mount Rosalie a metaphor for 9/11, are Todd and Constance the personification of America’s war on terror, and is their historical narrative, like Bierstadt’s painting, a matter of “bits and pieces of the truth arranged to make a picture”? Patricia Lynch’s 90-minute one-act play is relentless and exhausting, but ultimately it offers an original perspective into the American psyche and ample portions of food for thought. Unlike, say, Woody Allen’s lightweight film Match Point, the script conveys a genuine interest in understanding empathetically (albeit allegorically) what motivates real people (and consequently, by implication, what motivates America’s irrational involvement in Iraq). Steve Hatzai and Hayden Saunier effectively convey the combination of pain and impatience of Todd and Constance, for whom “Suddenly it comes upon you in middle age that you’re lost— you are a stranger in a strange land.” Jefferson Haynes is the innocent young museum guard (presumably a surrogate for the American soldiers trapped in Iraq) whom Todd and Constance persuade to carry out their dirty work in order to “send a message” that they’re as tough as ever, while themselves (like Bush & Co.) remaining out of harm’s way.— DAN ROTTENBERG.