I was on that other side, and by the second act I had pretty much had my fill of looking at people's back sides. Even the scenes that are staged on the other side of the circle face in the direction of the pump. Here is placed THE PUMP, and all roads lead to it. Instead of using the round to its best advantage Whoriskey has staged the play with the focus to the east side of the circle. Not so perfect for a director who doesn't. This wouldn't be so bad if she had come up with something better, but she didn't.Ĭircle in the Square is theater in the round, perfect for someone like Alan Ayckbourn who knows how to use it. And it is these directions that the director, Kate Whoriskey, tossed out the window. These directions paint the scene at the pump in detail. These directions also paint a clear portrait of her parents, especially her mother, who is weary beyond reckoning because she cannot find the code that will connect to her daughter. They define moments that reveal Helen's vital curiosity and frustration at being trapped inside her own self. In reading the script I found that William Gibson gave exact stage directions that shape this play. So far from this extraordinary moment does this production sway that it had the excitement of a good old-fashioned evening of churning butter. So it is with regret that I report the same scene in this production did not. I am giving myself goose bumps just thinking about this scene.
Annie Sullivan can barely keep up and the scene builds until there is a crescendo of Sullivan shouting "She knows! She knows!"
With each little whack she demands that the word be spelled into her palm. She hits the ground first and then covers the entire yard in record time, banging on everything she touches the ground, the trees, her own parents and finally her teacher, Annie Sullivan.
At that moment, the brat is transformed into Helen Keller. The kid is kicking and screaming until the moment when she realizes that what was coming out of the pump and what was being spelled into the palm of her hand is connected. Okay - you know the scene from the movie: the water pump, the teacher, who has just been pushed over the edge by the little brat who can neither see, speak or hear, drags her student from the dining table to the water pump to refill the pitcher that the kid has emptied - onto the teacher.
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