A complex drama that raises interesting questions, but fails to spur the audience on enough to care about the answers.Summary
Rating
Ok
With echoes of McCarthyism, there is a lot to unpack in The Value of Names. In its attempts to challenge the way we think about the issues that divide us all, it cycles through a series of questions about grudges, betrayal, and at its heart – the Hollywood blacklist of the mid-20th century.
When we first meet retired actor Benny (Jeremy Kareken) and his daughter Norma (Katherine Lyle) an actor aspiring to reach the same heights as her father, they are in the middle of a heated discussion. Benny is unhappy that Norma plans to drop his surname and instead use her mother’s. ‘Does it sound too Jewish?’ he asks. Norma explains she no longer wants to be known as ‘Norma Silverman, Benny Silverman’s daughter’, and instead wants people to cast her on merit rather than association. What follows is a comedic exchange comparing changing a name to having a baby, with Benny masking his upset at this through ridicule.
Throughout this conversation, Benny is painting on a canvas. This constituted almost the entire set. It is minimal, though it soon becomes clear that the location isn’t important, and that our focus should be purely on the dialogue. But this is difficult at times given the slow pacing of the entire play. After a stilted conversation about the painting, Norma reveals her unhappiness at not being told by her parents that Benny was on the blacklist. Both Kareken and Lyle do very well at establishing this compelling father-daughter dynamic. The pair are believable, and their arguments feel genuine, charged but also affectionate. But the production could benefit from some sound design to punctuate awkward gaps while the scene is reset, and the lights change.
We are next introduced to Leo (Tim Hardy), the director of the play in which Norma has landed herself a potentially career-defining role. But, there’s a problem. Leo is the man who betrayed Norma’s blacklisted father years ago, by testifying against him to the House of Un-American Activities Committee. This leads Norma to wrestle with her ambition and her loyalty to Benny. Hardy plays the role with an assured coolness, delivering every line with some pensive thought, though it is a little jarring at times when his American accent completely disappears only to re-appear a few minutes later.
It’s when Benny appears, and the two men come face to face for the first time in over thirty years, they are left to talk and work out whether they can settle their differences. This raised a very interesting question: is what Leo did to Benny forgivable?
But for all the play’s thought-provoking content, the pacing struggles to carry the audience along this journey. The direction needs an injection of pace and urgency to convey Benny’s desperation at the painful possibility of his daughter working with the man who destroyed his career. After roughly forty minutes of just these two men taking us on this journey, we are crying out for a change. The tone of both characters never really escalates, and while there is something to be said for measured debate, this is quite a lot to digest all in one go.
In its current form, the production fails to inspire much debate, with awkward silences and a lack of urgency. Lyle does a good job at trying to inject some zeal into her lines, but without her character for a large portion of the middle, the play begins to drag. However, the play does tie together questions about the power of a name in a compelling and provocative way. For this reason, the dialogue itself has some good potential.
Written & Directed by: Jeffrey Sweet
Produced by: Jacqui Garbett for Hint of Lime Productions
The Value of Names plays at White Bear Theatre until 1 March.
