30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #1 "Lemon Sky" By Lanford Wilson

 

I have decided for the month of September to read 30 plays in 30 days. It is my belief that, if possible, a play should be read in one sitting to get a better inherent sense of the dramatic arc. Each day, I will write a short post here about the play of the day. 

Play #1

Lemon Sky by Lanford Wilson

Produced off-Broadway in 1970 and starring Christopher Walken and Charles Durning, Lemon Sky, in my opinion, doesn't get the recognition it deserves among Lanford Wilson's endlessly impressive body of work. Though praised by critics, Lemon Sky closed after only 17 performances in New York. It would go on to fare better in Chicago, but would never reach the heights of later plays from this American master like his The Hot l Baltimore or Burn This (which has a dream role for actors, recently tackled by Adam Driver in a Broadway revival). 

I find it interesting that Wilson is considered by many a naturalistic playwright when I find that he thrives in the theatrical--- one of the reasons he is considered a pioneer of the off-off-Broadway movement. Lemon Sky takes place in 1959 and the present, pretty much simultaneously, as Alan (17 and 29) tells the story about moving from the Midwest to stay with his estranged father in California. His father left he and his mother and moved out west to start his own family with his mistress turned wife. Alan has two half-brothers he has only ever met once, and his father's household is rounded out by two teenage foster girls. 

There is no fourth wall to speak of in the play. Almost every character talks to the audience at some point, and Alan constantly reminds the audience that they are watching a play, as they move in and out of scenes and conversations out of the context of the story. In less skillful hands, this might distance the audience from the characters, but, as noted before, Wilson is a master, and his technique, in my opinion, only serves to draw the audience in more completely. 

At its heart, this is a family drama, and it works on that level even with a narrator (Alan) who tells us in the opening monologue that he is incapable of telling the complete truth about himself and his role in everything that happened. He can't help but make himself the hero, but reckons that the fact that he can't help it must show some truth. The important thing is to "get it all down" as he has been trying to tell the story "for seven years... closer to ten."

I would love to see this play get a revival, though it is not an easy sell, perhaps. Still, it is a work with great power and emotion, full of the passion and energy that would, in time, secure Lanford Wilson's place in the American playwriting pantheon.