Review: Saturn Returns

Memories and Grief Caught in Orbit

By Lauren Yarger
There is no end to grief and tears, but in Saturn Returns, Noah Haidle’s look at three stages of a man’s life, we discover that they are most bearable when shared with a ring of loved ones around us.

The concept behind the story that follows three particular days in the life of Gustin, a retried radiologist played at different ages by Robert Eli (28), James Rebhorn (58) and the excellent John McMartin (88), is that the planet Saturn returns three times during a person’s life to the position it occupied at his or her birth, representing crucial turning points (this information is thanks to program notes; you wouldn’t get this from the play itself).

We meet octogenarian Gustin when he hires visiting nurse Suzanne (Rosie Benton, who convincingly plays all of the female roles), not because he needs care, but because he’s lonely. She succumbs to his charm and reminding him of his deceased daughter, agrees to return the next day to give him something to look forward to. We travel into the past and meet his bright daughter, Zephyr, as she encourages the emotionally dependent 58-year-old Gustin to go out on a date and dreams about going off somewhere on her own, away from her father.

The third phase, another look into the past, introduces his young wife, Loretta, who is consumed with boredom and loneliness and passes the time by instructing her husband on how to kiss her (like we just met; like you’re going to war and we’re saying goodbye) and hopes to conceive a child.

Transitions between the three time periods are nicely staged by director Nicholas Martin, aided by lighting from Peter Kaczorowski and original music and sound by Mark Bennett that enable the characters to orbit in and out of each other’s time periods like visible memories. Finally, with new friend Suzanne, it seems Gustin might be able to defy the gravity which has held him prisoner to his memories and the house which holds them.

Saturn Returns is a study in what it feels like to be alone in the universe, but with a run time of just over an hour, we don’t get to know any of the characters well enough to understand why they cope in the way they do. A feeling that Loretta might be headed for suicide is eclipsed when we find out she died in child birth. So why does 88-year-old Gustin react with hostility when she’s mentioned and say he won’t speak of her? After his daughter dies, how does Gustin ever cope? Why is Loretta so lonely if she enjoys multiple daily phone calls with her mother? Why does Suzanne have no one else to turn to when she needs help? Their stories, in this fine production at Lincoln Center, are compelling enough that I want to know, but clouds obscure visibility.

Christians might also want to know:

• Language
• Lord’s name taken in vain.