Berkshire on Stage

“Did you know that loneliness is as lethal as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day?” Spoken by a character named Anna in the World Premiere production of Carey Crim’s play THE ISLANDERS, the line epitomizes the feelings of this middle-aged woman who has chosen to live alone on a sparsely populated island in Lake Michigan for the last seventeen years. Written during the Covid pandemic, the play, directed with delicacy and empathy by Regge Life for Shakespeare & Company, is a humorous, very moving study of the need for human contact in our increasingly isolated world.

Carey Crim resides in Michigan, where several of her plays have been produced at the Purple Rose Theatre Company. It was there that she met Michelle Mountain, the actress who plays Anna, according to an interview with the Berkshire Eagle. Both Crim and Mountain live in Ann Arbor, where they and their families have been close friends since 1998. Mountain’s late son, who suffered from a bipolar disorder, kept a journal and spoke often with the playwright, which probably influenced her conception of Anna,
as did her visit to Beaver Island, the setting of her play. This is not the first connection between Crim, Life, and Shakespeare & Company: MORNING AFTER GRACE, staged by Regge Life, received a full production there in 2018, and it was the venue for readings of Crim’s plays NEVER NOT ONCE in 2019, and THE ISLANDERS in 2022, both directed by Life.

For those who prefer an action-packed play with a complex plot, this may not be your cup of tea. But for those who are interested in the psychological underpinnings of two friendless, frightened characters attempting to establish a connection, this is for you. It all begins when Dutch (“ranney”, a favorite at Shakespeare & Company) moves into the cottage directly next door to Anna (Mountain) on Beaver Island. What are the secrets they’re hiding that make each of them forsake the company of others in order to live in this quiet, nearly empty place? Similar to life in the Berkshires, winters do not attract many visitors. Entering or leaving the island requires a small plane. Upon meeting Dutch Anna asks: “are you running from something or to something?” She later explains that she has chosen to live on Beaver Island because she doesn’t really like people—she knows how relationships end and is too “broken” to allow herself to risk getting involved with anyone. Yet, having no filter, she continues to interrogate Dutch about his past, which can be quite uncomfortable for him. Like peeling the layers of an onion, they painfully, gradually become more open with one another during the course of the play.

Anna is quirky, to say the least. In her many years on the island, she has developed rules and routines to fill her days: for example, gardening. She listens to the “wailing” of her fruits and vegetables, planted on what looks like a green indoor-outdoor carpet downstage, by lying on her stomach with her ears close to the ground. She goes “dumpster diving”: retrieving all sorts of unusual surprises that people have discarded, and brings them back to her home. What a challenge it must have been for set designer Cristina Todesco to decorate Anna’s place, which is stuffed with untold dump treasures that become part of her life, including a “she-shed,” her version of a man cave, and what seems to be the bow of a rowboat on top of her cottage, filled with all sorts of colorful fabrics and knickknacks. Kudos to Todesco, who must have had a marvelous time creating Anna’s world! Esther Van Eek’s costumes for Anna are a
mishmash of styles and colors (did they come from the dumpster as well?) suggesting the “hippies” of the 60s. Changing her outfits during each of the many scene transitions, it’s always a pleasure to see what she’ll come up with next.

Despite Anna’s manic exuberance, which intensifies as the play goes on, she is awkwardly vulnerable, having no sense of self-worth, believing that no one loves her—not her ex-husband nor her daughter who lives in Beijing and rarely visits. The character speaks quickly, talking non-stop so that Mountain sometimes stumbles over her words. This role requires an enormous amount of energy and focus, which makes her fine performance all the more memorable: at once lovable but unbearable, which is probably how Dutch (and all of us) would describe her.

“Ranney” (Dutch) shows us another side of his versatility as an actor, completely different from his recent roles in Shakeseare & Company’s FENCES and ART. Though his sense of comedy remains strong—his gestures speak volumes about the difficulties of meeting Anna and trying to communicate with her–he too is damaged, regarding himself as “disposable.” Dutch seeks to be alone, yet he wants to know “that if I decided to end it all, someone would be sad.” The actor finds humor in the sadness and sadness in the humor. Passionate about classical cello music, Dutch plays Schumann’s Cello Concerto, which surrounds the audience with its beauty, to which “ranney” responds emotionally. Sound designer Brendan F. Doyle increases the volume of this piece during transitions, adding jazz compositions, vocals, and otherworldly sounds to create a soundscape that feels like an integral part of this play, while lighting designer Deb Sullivan allows the lights to linger, fading slowly before blacking out at scene endings, offering us the opportunity to watch an actor, often “ranney,” alone with his thoughts.

Regge Life comments that the playwright “has an unbelievable ear for the way people talk to each other; how they don’t. She finds meaning in silences.” This is why Life is the perfect director for Crim’s play: he mines a script to plumb its depths, as he did with Suzan-Lori Parks’ two-character TOPDOG/UNDERDOG in 2019 at this theatre. He helps Mountain and “ranney” to embark on Crim’s “journey of the heart, mind, and soul,” and to express the poetry of her lines. Refusing medications that would regulate her behavior, Anna asks: “I know what it’s like to burn with the brightness of the sun. To be one with the gods. . . How could I not want that back?” A difficult and heartbreaking question.

THE ISLANDERS runs from July 25—August 25 at the Tina Packer Playhouse, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA. For tickets call 413-637-3353 or online at shakespeare.org.

Shakespeare & Company presents THE ISLANDERS by Carey Crim. Director: Regge Life. Cast: Michelle Mountain (Anna), “ranney” (Dutch). Set Designer: Cristina Todesco; Light Designer: Deb Sullivan; Costume Designer: Esther Van Eek; Sound Designer: Brendan F. Doyle; Violence Choreographer: Kevin G. Coleman. Production Stage Manager: Hope Rose Kelly.

The production runs two hours, including intermission.