Florian Zeller’s play, The Father, presented at Center Stage Theater by The Producing Unit, is an intriguing script that spirits the audience through the hedge-maze mind of André, a man with progressing dementia. Directed by Bill Egan and starring Tom Hinshaw, The Father encapsulates the frustration of a fickle reality as André’s inconvenient quirks, like constantly misplacing his watch, advance to signs of slipping autonomy, like failing to recognize familiar people and places.
Patience is stretched thin for his caretaking daughter, Anne (played by Rachel Jordan Brown or Paris Khougaz, depending on Andre’s perception, from scene to scene) and her partner (Paul Canter or Matthew Tavianini), as they decide the level of attention her father realistically needs, and what they can provide without risking their own happiness.
Creative aspects of the production that work well to illustrate the text include the fragmentary removal of set pieces as the play progresses. It’s a clever way to represent the unwilling reduction of André’s life from furnished and vibrant to spartan and unrecognizable. Less successful is the lean into quiet, conversational realism. While the intimacy of this nuanced acting style suits the somber subject matter, the smaller and more closed-in the performers get in their “living room” conversations, the more dialogue gets lost into stage ether. Center Stage is not cavernous, but it’s big enough to require acting more suited to theater than film, where these softer, more imperceptible moments can be successful. Sing out, Louise!
That said, the show features some lovely, heartbreaking moments, including Hinshaw’s final, desperate wish for comfort and clarity, beseeched by the anguished invalid that dementia has left abandoned and troubled. I personally wanted that final blackout to happen a few beats earlier, but that’s a nitpicky design conversation that will probably end with me owing someone a beer. See The Father September 19–21 (7:30 p.m.) at Center Stage Theater. Tickets are available at centerstagetheater.org.
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