NY Review: 'Thunder Rock'

An electric surge of passionate commitment courses through the ReGroup Theatre's production of Robert Ardrey's "Thunder Rock." First produced by the Group Theatre in 1939 on Broadway, this anti-war fantasy was directed by Elia Kazan and featured a high-powered cast that included film star Frances Farmer and Group Theatre stalwarts Lee J. Cobb, Luther Adler, Robert Lewis, and Morris Carnovsky. Nevertheless, it ran just a little more than two weeks, only to subsequently find great success in London and across Europe. Indeed, it was the sole play to remain open throughout the London Blitz, moving from theatre to theatre to entertain audiences that sat holding gas masks in their laps. After the war, the American government presented it in liberated Germany with a cast of Holocaust survivors.

It's an odd duck of a play, more interested in questions of philosophy and moral responsibility than in dramatic action, of which there is very little, and yet it unquestionably exerts a pull. Set in an isolated lighthouse on Thunder Rock in Lake Michigan in the waning days of 1939, with Europe just beginning to fight World War II, the story centers on David Charleston, an author and journalist, who was so disturbed by covering the civil war in Spain that he fled his career and "rejected a world I can't help" to take the job of lighthouse keeper. Constantly alone except for the monthly visits of a supervisor bearing supplies, he becomes intrigued by a plaque commemorating the victims of an 1849 shipwreck that lead to the lighthouse's erection, immigrants looking for a better life in America. Soon their ghosts appear, all unaware that they are dead except for Captain Kurtz, whom Charleston has let in on that fact. What they really are, of course, are products of Charleston's need to create a world he can live in. But part of the young writer feels guilty over the selfishness of his actions, and soon the shades are rebelling, insisting that they "weren't this way" and telling their true stories, all much darker than their creator's versions. It's a fascinating way of dramatizing an internal psychological tug-of-war, and it leads to a moving climax of hope.

While ReGroup's bare-bones production does have a rough-around-the-edges quality, that's ameliorated by Nic Davies' pointed and active direction and the above-mentioned commitment of the cast of 11. Maurya Scanlon is compelling in the Farmer role, Melanie Kurtz, the articulate young daughter of an Austrian physician run out of his country because of his experiments in anesthesia. As Kurtz's elegant French wife, Anne Marie, Linda Glick is full of grace and dignity leavened by a touch of Continental cynicism. Muscular Andrew Criss is a study in dazed fear as Mr. Briggs, whose offstage wife is having terrible trouble delivering their 11th child. Pete McElligott is a fine Captain Joshua, the American pilot of the doomed ship, especially effective in his constant sparring with Charleston, which drives what action there is.

ReGroup's assistant artistic director, Emily Ciotti, makes Miss Kirby, a middle-aged British spinster with a scarred face looking to become a polygamous Mormon wife because she believes no one else will have her, tenacious and touching. Timothy Weinert is a taciturn, manly Streeter, an old friend of the lighthouse keeper who is leaving his job as pilot of the supply plane to drop bombs in the war.

Co–artistic director Allie Mulholland takes on the daunting role of Charleston, in which he must negotiate reams of windy prose and tortured philosophizing. Mulholland meets these challenges through a studied artlessness that at first I found off-putting but to which I gradually warmed. He seems to be aiming for a heightened, self-conscious performance style at odds with the naturalism surrounding him, and it ultimately is a match for the role, turning what could come across as navel-gazing naiveté into believable anguish.

"Thunder Rock" is not for everybody, nor is ReGroup's production its ideal expression. Nevertheless, I am very glad to have made my acquaintance with both.

Presented by ReGroup Theatre at TBG Theatre, 312 W. 36th St., 3rd floor, NYC. May 3–13. Mon., Thu.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com