At one point in the drama, the State Department official gives a frank, and bleak, statement of caution while working to free a kidnapped American abroad.
“She says ‘At some point or another, people have to realize that if they’re outside the borders of the United States, there’s only so much protection the federal government can provide.'” Director Larry Boller said.
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The words are of little comfort to Laine, who just wants to bring her husband home, in the Independent Players production of “Two Rooms” by Lee Blessing. The drama runs Sept. 16-25 at Elgin Art Showcase in downtown Elgin, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.
Set in the 1980s during the Lebanon hostage crisis, American teacher Michael has been kidnapped by Hezbollah in or near Beirut and is being held in an unknown location.
“We see the location as just a cell, a square of light, that is a holding pen,” Boller said. “You see him alone taking to his wife in an imaginary letter he’s writing her in his head.”
That same space also serves as his office back home, a room where Laine has removed all of the furnishings “to try to approximate what her husband is going through and the setting he might find himself in,” Boller said.
It’s where she has imaginary conversations with her husband, as well as real discussions with an ambitious reporter looking to make a name for himself and the State Department official that handles the situation with professional detachment.
“You get to see all the events and perspectives from these different points of view,” Boller said. “You hear Justin Green (as Michael) feeling sorry for himself and wishing he were home explaining how he was kidnapped and held hostage and how frightening it was.
“But also he was a teacher, so at one point he voices understanding of these young terrorists who are trying to make a mark or do something significant to help their people.”
The audience hears Laine voice her personal loss and her frustration with the federal government with maneuvers they’re making trying to get her husband back, he said.
“(Blessing) makes good use of the setting, the single room, and he makes good use of all four actors,” Boller said. “You have to have four strong actors in there because it’s very nicely balanced between the four.”
It’s the setting that proved to be one of the biggest challenges for Boller and the cast, which includes Green as Michael, Krista Krauss Miller as Laine, Jake Murphy as the reporter and Ann Keen as State Department official.
“The fact that you have a room — whether you’re in Lebanon or the United States — you’re still in one room so your movement and blocking, the way you stage it, there’s a certain limitation that inspires creativity.
“So you can only go certain places …” Boller said. “Are you going to provide enough variety to keep the actors invested or the audience from feeling like they’ve seen this before. It’s interesting. It’s very challenging for the director and the actors.”
This is the second play by Blessing that Boller has directed for Elgin-based Independent Players, having directed “Eleemosynary” in 2017.
The show was well received, so the theater company wanted to do another of Blessing’s works. While they considered his most famous work, “A Walk in the Woods,” the drama “Two Rooms” was selected in part because current events surrounding the imprisonment of American WNBA player Brittney Griner in Russia continue to unfold.
“Political leverage, kidnapping and political prisoners … we’re still fighting that war,” Boller said.
Does kidnapped Michael make it home to the United States?
“There is a resolution of sorts that I think is satisfying,” Boller said, not wanting to give anything away.
‘Two Rooms’
When: Sept. 16-25
Where: Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St., Elgin
Tickets: $20 adult; $15 seniors (65+) and student (14-21)
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Information: 847-697-7374; independentplayers.org
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News.