Watching Monica Wood’s “Papermaker,” being performed by Penobscot Theatre Company at the Bangor Opera House, is akin to seeing a novel come to life onstage. It does not make for great theater, but the production is saved by some compelling performances and a tightly written, finely paced second act.
The play, first performed at Portland Stage two years ago, is set in the late 1980s, and tells the story of two families in the midst of a bitter strike at the paper mill in the fictional western Maine town of Abbott Falls. Ernie Donahue (James Herrera), is building a huge wooden ark in his backyard to keep busy. His wife, Marie (AJ Mooney), is battling cancer, and his son, Jake (Daniel Kennedy), is considering crossing the picket line at the mill to support his wife and infant daughter.
The mill’s owner, Henry (Doug Meswarb), has hired replacement workers to keep the mill running and is trying to be supportive of his daughter, Emily (Emily Shain), who is experiencing a personal crisis of her own. Sarcastic but supportive neighbor Nancy (Jennifer Shepard) rounds out the ensemble.
Woods’ choice to have Henry narrate the action proves to be unnecessary since much of what he tells the audience is repeated in the characters’ dialogue. Having the mill owner tell the story, coupled with Meswarb’s multi-faceted performance, makes Henry more sympathetic to the audience than the other characters, when he should not be.
The first act appears to be over when the characters pose onstage in a tableau. The actual final scene, with Henry and his daughter driving through rural New Hampshire, feels like an afterthought. It would have been better to open Act Two with that scene and cut the one where they are attacked by strikers since everything that happens in it is talked about later in the play.
The second act scene inside the Donahue’s home, where the characters all collide, is glorious. The dialogue is crisp and raw, which allows the characters’ conflicts to be explored but not resolved. It could stand on its own as a one-act and be worth watching.
Unexpectedly, Henry and Emily are the heart and soul of this production due to Meswarb and McCoy’s portrayals. As he did so well two years ago in “End Days,” Meswarb builds a believable relationship with a younger performer to whom his character is a father or father figure. He and McCoy talk at, around, over and through each other just as parents and their almost-adult children do. By showing theatergoers how Henry’s difficult childhood informs every decision he makes, Meswarb creates a manager who really does care for his workers but is unable to protect them from the rapidly changing industry.
McCoy’s performance is so intertwined with Meswarb’s that it’s difficult to separate hers from his. At the heart of her portrayal of the struggling graduate student is grief. Emily’s mother died six months before the play unfolds and the young woman is struggling to forge a closer relationship with her father and be a part of his world. McCoy gives a subtle and nuanced performance that rises above the neglected rich girl stereotype.
It feels as if Ernie and Marie should be the heart and soul of the show but Mooney and especially Herrera fall short in their portrayals. They beautifully capture the love and affection of a long-married couple but there is no trace of the passionate spark that once burned. Mooney seems a bit lost in the role, unsure of who this woman is, or perhaps, just struggling to remember her lines.
Herrera looks and moves like a paper mill worker but he never gets to the heart of the working class Ernie. His portrayal seems to be planted firmly in the 21st century rather than the 1980s. Herrera’s Ernie is too cheerful, too optimistic about the future for a man whose wife and way of life both are dying. Under that happy facade should be some kernel of anger about to explode over what he is losing.
Kennedy portrays Daniel as a young man buffeted by economic forces he can’t control. The actor makes the character’s dilemma over whether to cross the picket line to provide for his family gut-wrenchingly real for the audience. Shepard’s character proves to be a great foil for Henry and her union-first attitude always is believable.
Director Daniel Burson does the best he can with Wood’s flawed script but the structure of Act One, which calls for the actors to move very little, bogs down the pace of the show. Burson’s gift as a director is in his ability to help actors explore and then portray the breadth and depth of each character. For the most part, he was successful in doing that in “Papermaker.”
The technical aspects, particularly the half-built ark, are fine. Chez Cherry’s set, Jonathan Spencer’s lighting and Kevin Koski’s costumes complement each other well but other than the absence of cell phones, there’s not much that visually anchors the show in 1989.
Despite its flaws, “Papermaker” is a testament to Producing Artistic Director Bari Newport’s commitment to stage works about the Pine Tree state by Maine playwrights. The production also is a timely reminder of how much the state’s industry has changed over the last three decades but also a reminder of why Maine’s people make living here meaningful.
Penobscot Theatre Company’s production of “Papermaker” runs Wednesdays through Sundays through April 2 at the Bangor Opera House. For information, call 942-3333 or visit penobscottheatre.org.