‘Wish You Were Here,’ the weak link in the Williamstown Audio Series
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. » Personally, I have preferred the Williamstown Theatre Festival Audio series of plays over Zoom productions. Likely, it is because audio encourages imagination, while Zoom shows only the faces of actors in boxes.
However, the newest release, “Wish You Were Here” shows all the negatives that comes from a piece written for the stage that isn’t altered for a new delivery system.
In a word, the presentation of “Wish You Were Here” is confusing. It’s extremely difficult to identify characters and their relationships to one another.
Initially I felt the problem might be my inattention to the material, but listening a second time did not add much clarity. I still had only the vaguest understanding of the characters, the situation and the relationships.
Likely, I wouldn’t have cared for the play even in a live production, although I might have been clearer on the reasons for my passive feelings. Nevertheless, I am pretty certain my distain for the play has to do with the material in general. The characters are neither appealing nor interesting. There is very little drama and less conflict, And, overall, the writing lacks emotional depth.
The play is about a group of five female friends coming of age in Iran between the years 1978 and 1992. It was a period of oppression and suppression.
The women struggle with choices about marriage, careers and emigration. Indeed, over the 14-years covered in the play different women make life-changing decisions on all these issues and others.
However, though sometimes tenuous, the friendship between two of the women remains strong. That bond is between a proud Iranian, who stays and deeply loves her country, and a Jewish-Iranian who disappears and makes no further contact with the group. It is assumed she left for life in another country – either Israel or the United States.
One woman is a gentle, private and almost innocent individual. The other is outspoken to the point of being crude. Indeed, several conversations within the entire group concerning female and male private body parts borders on the point of being too much information and is potentially offending to some.
Though the two women are polar opposites and remain distanced throughout the play, it is this relationship that shows an enduring bond can exist between two people who seem to have little in common. A sexual longing could be read into their relationship, but if it exists, it is likely subliminal.
Though their emotional connection is undefined, it is both real and believable. A major problem in the writing is the friendship with the other women seems so casual that every time we meet them there is an impression we are being introduced to a new character. There is no emotional closeness between any sets of the other women.
While I find fault with the writing, there is no single performance that defines or makes an individual character stand out. Everyone speaks in a whispered monotone that results in them all sounding the same. This is a director error, as is the slow pacing that makes a twohour presentation seem even longer.
This is the sixth production of the Williamstown Audio series and it is certainly the weakest. There’s one left and hopefully in the summer of 2021, we return to live theater.