If playwright, Donald Margulies’ objective was to present the perils of artistic collaborations, he nailed it in Collected Stories. The play shows through March 3rd at the Don and Ann Brown Theatre—Palm Beach Dramaworks’ home on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach.
Photo credit: Samantha Mighdoll
Lisa Morrison (Keira Keeley), a budding writer gets the attention of her professor and seasoned author, Ruth Steiner (Anne-Marie Cusson). They share a protégé/mentor association that eventually grows into a friendship. The relationship takes a shadowy turn when the student helps herself to a romantic episode in her teacher’s life, and fashions it into her first successful novel.
Margulies sweeps you along Lisa’s emotional journey from infatuation to exploitation; from adulation to selfish ambition. Ruth is hard-pressed to fault Lisa because she, herself, advised her protégé to utilize material from anywhere and anyone.
The night sparkled with lines like:
“That reviewer has obviously been bit by the alliteration bug.” And, “Finally, a three-word sentence!”
When the young writer visits her tutor after a lengthy absence, she is met with a latched door. Summing up one of the play’s major messages, the jaded veteran calls out, “I put up the bolt in case of burglars.”
Paul Stancato’s directing offers a bounty of transcendent moments that lose the viewer in the beauty of poetry, prose, and a skillful blend of creative lighting, staging and exceptional acting.
Tickets are available at http://www.palmbeachdramaworks.org/tickets.php
