Morning Sun at Manhattan Theatre Club Stage 1

Morning Sun by Simon Stephens

Manhattan Theatre Club Stage 1 

Rating: C-

The writeup on the ArtNet website of Edward Hopper’s famous painting, Morning Sun, explains that “it hints at the bare bones of a narrative with the kind of spare, evocative style that has since influenced filmmakers and photographers.” So it is not surprising that the British playwright Simon Stephens was inspired by Hopper’s style in creating his new play, Morning Sun, at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s City Center Stage 1.

  

Edward Hopper’s Morning Sun

It is a “bare bones narrative” of the life of woman born and growing up in New York City from the late 1950s to her death in the 2000s. The style is “evocative” – an open stage at the full diameter of the theatre with no hints of a cramped apartment and several other environments that the play’s central character finds herself in during her uneventful life. The always fascinating Edie Falco plays Charlie (the character’s chosen name) while Blair Brown and Marin Ireland effectively play the other characters in Charlie’s life, most frequently her mother and daughter. While all of these people have names, they are listed in the program as “bare bones” named 1, 2, and 3.

In a promotional interview with the New York Times’ critic Alexis Soloski, Falco explains that the play is not epic, tragic, or especially momentous. “It’s just people, just trying to get through stuff,” Falco said. “There’s something very beautiful about that.”

Whether you find that “beautiful” or just plain boring depends on your tolerance for a play that has little to say other than most people’s lives are filled with personally significant events that they just have to “get through.” Unfortunately, I did not find it beautiful. The combination of the stark style and the lack of a through-line that gave the audience some insight beyond simple survival left me looking at my watch throughout the play’s 100 minutes without an intermission.

Minimalism can make for fascinating theatre. A play does not have to be filled with events that shout out meaning. Anyone who has enjoyed some of Harold Pinter’s masterpieces knows how powerful those features can become in the hands of a great playwright. In fact, Mr. Stephens has produced a number of highly regarded plays and adaptations, most notably Heisenberg and several much-produced adaptations of Chekov plays that make the “simple” truly meaningful.

This play was commissioned by the MTC and Mr. Stephens weaves this tale against the history of New York City from the 1950s to 2000s. In fact, the sometimes-sentimental references to stores that no longer exist clearly connected with the audience as they sighed or laughed at their mention. One of the play’s apparent themes is the way an individual’s life can be completely unaffected by major external events. Ms. Falco’s character is “out of town” on 9/11 and she sees no reason to return home immediately. After all, she is out of town and not directly affected by that tragedy.

And that 9/11 moment is typical of what makes this play so thin and unengaging. Events occur in the private life of Charlie and in the world surrounding her life. She deals with it or doesn’t. Others criticize her, or don’t. All the audience sees is a sequence of events in the life of a person who survives. If that is enough for you to enjoy an evening in the theatre, then get a ticket. But I wanted something more, something Chekhovian or Pinteresque or, more hopefully, “Stephensish.”