Theater Review: A Small Fire

A Small Fire Rages with Emotions
By Lauren Yarger
Just how hard would you fight to stay in a world you no longer could smell, taste, see or hear? And how far would you go to reach out to your wife, mother or friend if she were the one losing her senses?

These questions are the kindling for Adam Bock’s A Small Fire, an inferno of emotions and a blaze of great play writing stoked by riveting performances as directed by Trip Cullman Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons.

Tony Award winner Michelle Pawk is Emily Bridges, a woman who, in between living a settled-for life with husband, John (an excellent Reed Birney), running her construction contracting business with friend and colleague Billy Fontaine (Victor Williams) and planning a wedding she’s less than enthusiastic about for her estranged daughter, Jenny (Celia Keenan-Bolger), suddenly finds she’s losing her senses. Literally.

First she loses her sense of smell, then taste (a sample of the wedding cake tastes like chalk). She tries to hide the problems from her family and Billy, but as sight and hearing soon fail her as well, she reluctantly becomes dependant on them for every need. The play’s one weakness is that no explanation for the phenomenon is given. We’re left to wonder whether it’s a medical condition or a psycho-somatic withdrawal from her world. In any case, it doesn’t really matter, because the core of the fire comes from the characters’ interaction with each other.

As Emily’s senses fail, John’s become more acute and he assumes the roles of his wife’s eyes and ears as well as her caretaker. Birney is an explosion of talent. In a scene where he’s describing to Emily what’s happening at the wedding, he portrays every kind of emotion. A simple smile he gives his wife early in the play conveys love and devotion – and later – serves as an anchor of truth when he defends his decision not to abandon his marriage to his daughter, who increasingly finds it difficult to be around her mother and wants her father to be released from his existence.

Pawk is riveting as the woman slowly finding herself in a nightmare from which she can’t awake. Williams is excellent as Emily’s one true friend – and also lends some needed comic relief with his enthusiasm for racing “athlete” pigeons. The roles are demanding and require the actors to take the characters further than the mere words that are being said. Here Keenan-Bolger’s Jenny falls a bit short of the others, as we never fully understand why she’s so hostile toward her mother.

The creative team adds snap and crackle to the production as well. Loy Arcenas designs a set that easily changes from construction site to living room (helped by sound and music effects designed by Robert Kaptowitz and lighting design by David Weiner); Ilona Somogyi designs the costumes.

Bock stacks an amazing amount of wood to build a roaring fire in this play – incredible character development and swift movement of story build to a raging conclusion– all in just 80 minutes. It’s one of most engrossed times I’ve spent watching a play in a long time.

A Small Fire has been extended through Jan. 30 at Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd St. For tickets, call (212) 279-4200.

Christians might also like to know:
• Language
• Lord’s name taken in vain
• Homosexuality (mentioned, but not central to the themes)
• Sexual Activity
• Nudity