‘The Few’ highlights universal life struggles
When we think of the term, “the few,” we may think of those who defended the free world during World War II. Perhaps it will remind us of those special people in our lives. “The Few,” by playwright Samuel D. Hunter, is something different. It is the name of a newspaper, based in America’s heartland, for the lonely truck drivers, who drive back and forth across the country. The paper was created to give them the comfort of knowing that though they are few, they are not alone. And in the past four years, that newspaper has evolved into a paper that primarily publishes personal ads, in the days before the internet.
It’s an unusual premise, but the story is a more personal one, around those few who created that paper and the struggles, they, like so many people face- loneliness, companionship, growing up, addiction, and death.
In the small newspaper office, housed in a trailer, Bryan has just returned to the paper he helped found. He is filled with conflicted emotions as he encounters QZ, the woman he left after their good friend Jim, died in a trucking accident. She too has struggled since Bryan, her best friend and lover, suddenly and mysteriously departed. Also present is the teenage Matthew, a boy who had admired Bryan and joined QZ in working on the newspaper and hoped that some day he would meet his hero. But just as present is the missing Jim, who hovers like the portrait on the wall in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.”
The three characters are trying to come to grips with what they want in life while in the background, the phone keeps ringing as we hear countless men and a few women, calling the newspaper, almost crying out for companionship and guidance in their own life struggles.
Meanwhile, each character has his or her own plan for what they see as the future of the newspaper. Bryan’s leadership provided an artistic and safe place for the drivers to express themselves. QZ ran a more successful business running the personals. And Matthew is just desperate to keep the paper alive. He sees it as his only refuge in life. At one point, he locks Bryan in the trailer and uses a BB gun to convince him of the importance of the paper.
Hunter’s concept is a smart one, but it doesn’t always succeed. It’s hard to explain what makes for fine writing when a playwright is trying to be poignant and funny while he tells his story, but this script often falls into some television clichés. Anxiety and anger sometimes need to be played in a more nuanced approach rather than the “over the top” style of the TV sitcom. Perhaps if Director Matthew Decker gave the actors the moments they needed to reflect rather than permit them to overplay so many of the lines, it could have been stronger. That is the beauty of the stage. The actors, Suli Holum, Steven Rishard, and PJ Barth, were all strong enough to handle it.
Still, “The Few” reminds us that whatever we do, wherever we live, the struggles we face in life are universal.