Lanford Wilson was at one point one of America’s preeminent dramatists – he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama & Performance Art in 1972, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award in 2004. As co-founder of the Circle Repertory Company, Wilson transitioned in the 1970s from off-off-Broadway to off-Broadway to Broadway, and was instrumental in advancing off-Broadway as a movement – demonstrating that new playwrights could inch closer to West 41st Street in time.
Typically, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, I seek out new writing and tend to dismiss revivals or regurgitations of especially famous productions – but I’m certainly glad I made an exception for this, the first part of a two-part concoction of Lanford Wilson’s one-act plays, none of which I had ever read or heard of before this year’s festival. After watching Who We Become, Pt. 1 – an admittedly corny title that does not quite prepare you for the depth, mystery and pain of The Moonshot Tape, the first of the plays presented – I cannot wait to see the other two in the second part.
In The Moonshot Tape, Margaret Curry plays Diane, a successful short story writer who has returned to her hometown in Missouri and sits face-to-face with a journalist from the high school paper she once wrote for. What follows is perhaps one of the best performances you will see at the Fringe this year, as Diane comes to terms with the horrors and traumas of her childhood over the course of the interview. Wilson’s writing veers gracefully across and between topics, supported by a consistently compelling, nuanced and thought-provoking delivery from Curry. The stage is bare-skinned and minimal, as is the direction, allowing Wilson’s distinctly naturalistic dialogue and Curry’s reserved physicality to fully occupy the space.
Overall, this version of The Moonshot Tape by Deep Flight Productions is a triumph – bolstered by a devastating and eloquent central performance.
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