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Madison Rep’s Mercy of a Storm: A Love Greater Than Class?

The setting is the pool house of an exclusive country club in a small, midwestern town, a town not unlike many others that dot the landscape along America’s highways. It is New Year’s Eve, 1945, although within the soul that holds the desires and passions of mankind, it could be anytime since the dawn of history. Light and laughter filter in from the party going on in the clubhouse above.

First one and then another figure slips into the pool house and the mystery begins. Within “Mercy of a Storm,” Minneapolis-based playwright Jeffrey Hatcher has created a “film noir” look and feel in a play about the impact of one’s class on the possibilities of love — and more. “Storm,” the next offering of the Madison Repertory Theater, features a fabulous period set based upon the set created for the play’s premier in April 2002.

The shadowy figures in the pool house are Zanovia Holmburg, (played by Jennifer Regan) and George Holmburg (played by Martin LaPlatney). They look and feel like they’ve sprung from a B-movie reel. “In this play, he’s one of the wealthiest men in town,” said Richard Corley, the Madison Rep’s artistic director whi is directing “Storm.” “He sort of worked his way up from nothing. He owns an insurance company in a small town in Pennsylvania, between Pittsburgh and Youngstown, Ohio. They’re going through a divorce, basically, because he married the daughter of his Polish cleaning lady. Her mother came from Poland. She’s first generation American. This small town they are living in won’t allow them to be together for class and, perhaps, ethnic reasons. They’ve been separated now for about a month because at the country club, they just won’t accept that they are together. There is an age difference, but it really has to do with her being Polish American and from the wrong side of the tracks. One of the jokes in the play is that when they first got married, they walked into the country club and one of the guys at the country club said, ‘Oh, looks like George woke up on the wrong side of the tracks.’”

The depth of the play, which happens in real time, is the exploration of the bond between these two people who, if nothing else in the world is considered, belong together.  “At the beginning of the play, you don’t even realize they are husband and wife,” Corley said. “You just think it’s two lovers having a tryst together. Then you realize, ‘They’re married?’ And why are they meeting here? Why are they meeting secretly? It just unfolds in a very entertaining, very funny way.”

How painful are the contortions that social strictures make us go through for love.

Richard Corley – It’s kind of a romantic mystery that concerns, interestingly enough, class, something that isn’t explored that much in plays in my experience. You get plays that explore race, but plays that explore class are unusual. They’re in the country club pool house. The New Year’s Eve party is going on in the country club above. They’ve met down here. No one knows quite why they have met. Is he going to reconcile with her? Are they going to battle out their divorce plans and discuss their settlement? She certainly hopes they get back together. There’s a lot of humor, but it’s a very painful, class-based humor. That’s one of the things that really attracted me to it. It was romantic. It was mysterious. It was set 50 years ago. There are some issues in the play that feel ‘This really isn’t an issue today,’ such as the difficulty of getting a divorce without evidence of adultery. But then, there are some issues in terms of class that are still very prevalent. The play really explores those in a very rich and interesting way.

The heart of the play is a couple of things. What brought them together? Will they stay get back together? Will they stay together? Just as in any romantic mystery, you’re rooting for them to get back together because clearly, when you see the play, pretty quickly, it becomes apparent that they belong together. They’re great together. The mystery is will they get back together. Why are they here in this pool house together? Is it a rendezvous? Is it to slip off in some romantic way? You sort of think it’s a black and white 1940s romantic mystery. Then, you find out there is something else going on that’s more rich and complex than that. It’s the kind of play I like. You are seduced into thinking about things, but it isn’t obvious.

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