The Islanders by Carey Crim
World Premiere at Shakespeare & Company
By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 01, 2024
Beaver Island, the largest in Lake Michigan, is 13 miles long and up to 6 miles wide. Vacationers come to summer cottages while year round population shrinks to a scant 600. It is reached by a two and a half hour ferry.
Anna (Michelle Mountain) has lived here in isolation for 17 years while her neighbor Dutch (‘ranney’) is a newbie. Her small, ramshackle cottage was originally the guest house for his. They share a leaf strewn back yard. The cozy, functional set has been designed by Cristina Todesco.
It’s 2 A.M. when we encounter her seemingly deranged and talking to nature. Dressed in a bathrobe and boxer shorts she pulls them down and lifts her top to make contact between her flesh and mother earth. She complains about his music (classical cello) for which he apologizes stating insomnia. He is also in a bathrobe and sleeping attire.
Awkwardly they meet she with an outburst of nosy questions and he with somewhat reticent reluctance to engage. She quips that poking into other people’s business is a trope for Islanders.
While she gushes his character is revealed in studied increments. The director, Reggie Life, is noted for developing off kilter, out of sync characters. They have mutual interest more by proximity, isolation and fate than natural inclination.
With a caveat she offers exuberant friendship but declares that it will not entail romance and sex. It seems that she has dated every eligible bachelor but prefers and is content with keeping her own company.
His car has broken down and she suggests the best mechanic on the island. Which he observes is also the only one. There are limited social and commercial options for these self imposed hermits.
Thanksgiving approaches and they discuss plans. Her daughter from Thailand is expected for about three days. His plans are vague and we learn that his friends and colleagues are deceased while more and more he drifted away from those who remained. Now retired with no real social life it made sense to depart the wear and tear of city life.
Her relentless, busy body probing makes him reveal unpleasant facts. He had been an executive in tech. On the way home from work he got mugged by two guys wielding broken bottles. That resulted in a month in a hospital. The day he returned to work he was sacked apparently as an act of ageism. In that sense he is urban industrial detritus exploring a hermit’s life and some peace of mind.
Which through her pestering and antics he enjoys little of. The holiday blew by and winter advanced. Her daughter on a lame excuse cancelled. Instead celebrated with Anna’s ex.
That seems to be a tipping point as her behavior and acting out morphed from eccentric to clinical. To the untrained observer she is bi-polar. In a manic upburst they have sex. That changes things and creates impossible expectations. He takes off but just then her cellphone rings.
To clear his head he takes a drive that lasts for five months. He returns holding a large box. She has a thing about dumpster diving. The reveal is a board game they will share.
The phone call allowed him to find her meds. Reluctantly she takes one while she helps him through a couple of asthma attacks.
They will play out there lives as neighbors, invalids and if not lovers then loving.
Carey Crim has written a slow, intricate two-hander that takes patience to absorb us into the incremental pace of the Island. Life and a superb cast have meticulously involved us in their struggle for meaning and endurance.
The Islanders plays on the Tina Packer Playhouse stage at Shakespeare & Co., 70 Walker Street, Lenox, Massachusetts through August 25.