AN UNHAPPY COUPLE – UNHAPPY IN ITS OWN WAY
Stockholm Syndrome is a form of traumatic bonding in which hostages develop an irrational sympathy for their captors. The term refers to a robbery in Stockholm in which bank employees who were held hostage in a vault for six days not only rejected government assistance, but actually defended their captors after release.
Stockholm, by British playwright Bryony Lavery, illustrates this psychological condition through its unsparing story of a young couple caught in a mutually destructive relationship. The play, which premiered in Plymouth seven years ago, has been produced several times in the U.S. and is now making its New York City premiere at 59E59 Theaters, presented by One Year Lease Company and directed by Nick Flint.
Despite its psychological reference point, Stockholm is not a psychological drama. It is an edgy, stylized version of life, with choreographed interludes by Natalie Lomonte substituting for dialogue. What’s more, Kali (Christina Bennett Lind) and Todd (Richard Saudek) narrate their life at the same time they live it. Lavery tells us from the very beginning: this is a play about an abusive relationship much more than a play about the people in the relationship.
When we first meet Kali and Todd, they are preparing for a vacation in Sweden. Swedish references abound, from Ikea furniture to films by Ingmar Bergman to the couple’s own play version of the Swedish language. They are clearly obsessed with the country. But it doesn’t take long before the audience realizes something is rotten in Denmark.
The couple is given to passionate love-making, profane language and fancy cooking. Aside from Kali’s obsessive interest in Todd’s past liaisons, they seem, for the most part, normal. Then we learn Kali is insanely jealous of Todd. She is convinced he is still in touch with former girlfriends. Fearing her hold on Todd is tenuous, she tries to control him by making herself constantly desirable and available. To a great extent this works. Except when it doesn’t.
If Kali and Todd are fairly one-dimensional (Todd has a history and an unlikable mother, but Kali seems to have no past and no family), Saudek and Lind make the most of their roles. Their emotional turmoil is most often physical. Erotic scenes send waves of steam floating from the stage. Fights are horrific and frightening.
Set designer James Dardenne has put the couple into an ultra-modern apartment, with walls and windows at discordant angles. Even when the couple is illuminated, major parts of their apartment remain in shadows, perhaps like that part of their lives they would like to keep hidden.
With so much going for it, one wonders why Stockholm is so forgettable. Perhaps it’s because despite substantial direction and deeply engaged acting, the story is mostly thematic. The problem with these people is not so much that they are unlikable as that they never seem real.
At one point in the play Kali says Sweden is a country where the sun shines all the time in summer and the winters are dark. Some people who see Stockholm will perceive a bright and bold example of theatrical innovation. Others may wonder why so much talent has been bestowed on such a slight and murky story.
photos by Russ Rowland
Stockholm
One Year Lease (OYL) Theater Company
59E59 Theaters
scheduled to end on March 29, 2014
for tickets, call 212.279.4200 or visit www.59e59.org
for more info, visit www.oneyearlease.org
