My telephone once rang and I recognized my parent’s number. Sometimes I would let the call go to voice mail when I wasn’t in the mood (or had the time) for a long, one sided conversation that had nothing to do with me or my life. This particular time, unfortunately, I answered. I was greeted with the following infamous quote: “Hello Joe, your father and I were talking the other night. All of our children are such disappointments.” Apologia brought that memory back in full view since the mother at the center of this play is considered fairly monstrous by her children.
Kristin Miller lives in a cottage in the English countryside. She is attempting to cook dinner for her two sons coming over to celebrate her birthday. She is a famous art historian having just written a memoir called Apologia. Neither of her sons are mentioned in the book. Neither of her sons spent any time with her since their father reclaimed them before they were ten years old. She was in Italy then, too busy with her passions and political activism. This play explores the conflict of a woman’s choice to abandon her children to have a life dedicated to her causes and beliefs rather than her sons. At this particular birthday party, the defensive walls are evident and, ultimately, breached.
Similarly to my own experience, Kristin’s children cope differently depending on their individual personalities. Peter is the successful one who she taunts as another banker imprisoning African countries with debt. He arrives with a new girlfriend in tow, a Christian American, which is hardly pleasing to her bleeding heart liberalism. Simon is her wounded other son, unable to hold a job or write his novel. He doesn’t show up for dinner but his wife is there, a soap opera actress. The plot obviously deals with all of these relationships as they interact with, annoy and judge dear Mommy. No worry, her moat is deep and her walls are high so there is plenty of opportunity for her offensive barrage.
I have seen Stockard Channing on the New York stage many times since she and Roundabout Theatre won their first Tony Awards with A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in 1985. The women she chooses to play are interestingly flawed and complicated individuals. In this performance, the role and actress are a strong match. You may see her side of things and still dislike her immensely. Hugh Dancy (Journey’s End, Venus in Fur) portrays both of her sons and he is convincing in the very different roles. While the explosions that detonate the first act are memorable, the quieter war in the second half cuts even more deeply. The lighting design by Bradley King is additive to the mood in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s play.
An apologia is a vindication, a justification or an explanation. How Kristin chose to live her life and how her children attempted to process it now that they are middle aged is the meat of this feast. The play is imperfect. Some of the dialogue seemed forced and unnatural. That did not matter to me. I thoroughly enjoyed this play, these performances and this story. Maybe one day I can imagine wanting to spend time with my mother on her birthday, listening to her apologia. I doubt that will happen. When one works so very hard to spread hatred and meanness, there is a point where the walls are fortified too high. Better to find a castle of one’s own and thrive.