Family deals with autism in ‘Falling’
Love is omnipresent but never, ever easy in Deanna Jent’s intense “Falling.”
The play about a family confronting the daily challenges of living with a severely autistic 18-year-old son is a moving examination of caring, endurance and the steep emotional cost of coping with a perpetually difficult – sometimes impossible – situation.
New City Players has just opened its production of “Falling” at the Vanguard in Fort Lauderdale. Directed by company member Jessica Schulte, the drama is undeniably harrowing yet deeply moving, honest in its depiction of the limited choices and repercussions for families like the one in Jent’s play.
Set in the Martin family’s purposefully organized home in 2011, “Falling” revolves around the moment-to-moment challenges of coexisting with Josh (Timothy Mark Davis), a tall and imposingly large teen on the severe end of the autism spectrum.
His parents Tami (Arlette del Toro) and Bill (Todd Bruno) are devoted to their son. But Josh’s 16-year-old sister Lisa (Abby Nigro) has had it with the way her brother’s situation dominates every waking moment in the household. Then a visit from Bill’s mother Grammy Sue (Elizabeth Price) becomes, over the course of the 75-minute play, a catalyst for change.
At the heart of “Falling” is this wrenching dilemma: Should Josh be sent to a group home, if a rare opening should become available?
His slender mother, who has suffered a broken finger, bruises, pulled hair and bouts of choking from her powerful son when his anxiety overwhelms him, thinks he should stay with the family. Bill, who sees his marriage fraying as Tami keeps him at a physical distance and drinks to cope with the demands of Josh’s care, and Lisa, who just wants some semblance of the life her friends live, think a group home would be the better solution.
“Falling,” which shifts from a straightforward realistic drama into a sudden imagined change in the family’s circumstances before returning to a slightly more hopeful reality, is at times as difficult to watch as it is for families like the Martins to live out the story devised by Jent, whose autistic son was an inspiration for the play.
The work of fight coordinator Rachel Smoker Cox is integral to the production’s gut-wrenching power. When Josh physically attacks Tami, the assault looks utterly and frighteningly real, and you wonder how even the most loving and committed mother could survive in such an obviously volatile environment.
This mother-son relationship is key to the play, and the exquisite work by Davis and del Toro is convincing, nuanced and deeply involving.
Davis, who doubles late in the play as a by-the-book yet quirky worker from the Department of Children and Family Services, gives a sensitive performance that reflects the realities of a young man living with severe autism. Minimally verbal, fixated on routines, his Josh careens from one safe stimulus to the next – picture books, Thomas the Tank Engine, an elevated box that opens to rain delicate white feathers down on him, causing him to do a happy dance. When the precarious balance of his world is upset, he turns dangerous, then remorseful. Davis’ work is empathetic and masterful.
Del Toro matches him in intensity as her Tami tries to cope with her son’s, husband’s and daughter’s needs while numbing her own pain. Gradually, it becomes clear that “Falling” is Tami’s play, told from her perspective, and del Toro earns that focus.
Bruno balances Bill’s genuine concern for his son with his frustration over his wife’s emotional aloofness. Nigro has some difficult, even cruel lines as Lisa, but she persuasively conveys the 16-year-old’s frustrations. Though she’s much younger than the woman she’s playing, the gifted Price gives another intricate performance as a devout woman who slowly grasps the enormity of her family’s challenges.
The work from New City Players’ creative team is critical to delineating both the Martins’ routine world and the frightening way that world can register with Josh.
The company is offering talk-backs with the cast and autism experts after each performance, an opportunity to delve a bit more into the world theatergoers have just experienced. While the writing in the script is more solid than great, “Falling” becomes a moving and enlightening artistic experience thanks to the collaborative care and talent devoted to it by New City Players.
“Falling” is a New City Players production running through Oct. 27 at the Vanguard, 1501 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Show times are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $35. To order, call 954-650-5938 or www.newcityplayers.org.