‘Ripcord': A serious little comedy livens the summer in Davidson
'Ripcord' runs through July 28 in Duke Family Performance Hall on the Davidson College campus
This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on July 22, 2024. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. And check out this link for Toppman’s archive of reviews in the Ledger.
Review: Davidson Community Players’ ‘Ripcord’ digs into weighty topics with humor and heart, with just the right mix of speed and character
In “Ripcord,” actors Pat Langille and Karen Lico play Marilyn and Abby, two residents of an assisted living center who make a bet about who can disturb the other’s composure first. Attendant Scotty (played by Lowell Lark) finds himself drawn into the contest. (Photo courtesy of DCP)
by Lawrence Toppman
Quietly, since the demise of Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte in the fall of 2022, other local theater companies have moved to fill the gap. Charlotte Conservatory Theatre, Theatre Charlotte and Three Bone Theatre have provided the kind of thoughtful contemporary work in which ATC specialized, without the burden of operating as a fully professional company.
Davidson Community Players has done its part with the likes of “Yankee Tavern” and “Next to Normal” during the first season under new executive director Steve Kaliski, a Davidson College alum and playwright. Even the second show of the current summer series, a spot usually reserved for crazy farces or gentle gag-filled humor, has become an opportunity to dig a little deeper into the human psyche. You’ll laugh at “Ripcord,” possibly with rueful recognition, but you’ll think, too.
Followers of David Lindsay-Abaire, who won 2023 Tony Awards for his book and lyrics to the musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” would consider “Ripcord” a minor entry in his canon. It has never been to Broadway, like his Tony-nominated “Rabbit Hole” and “Good People.” It’s had no national tour. Wikipedia doesn’t give “Ripcord” a page, as it does for nine of his 10 other plays.
Yet it contains plum roles for two older actresses and carries on a theme that runs through much of Lindsay-Abaire’s work: How people deal with the prospect, approach or aftermath of death. In this case, it’s creeping up extremely slowly — if we are to believe what we’re told — on Marilyn (Pat Langille) and Abby (Karen Lico) in an assisted living center. But it’s omnipresent: As amiable attendant Scotty (Lowell Lark) reminds them, this is the kind of place where not everybody wakes up on any given morning.
In fact, a resident in a desirable room downstairs has just died. Abby, who can’t afford a single room, has retained privacy by driving away every roommate with a combination of surliness and sarcasm. She can’t understand why breezy, good-natured Marilyn doesn’t take the newly opened room and vacate the one they share. But Marilyn likes the extra sun, the attractive view and the challenge of getting Abby to like her.
Each has armored herself against the hurtfulness of the world, Marilyn with impenetrable cheerfulness — she claims never to get angry — and Abby with porcupine prickliness and an “I don’t give a damn” attitude. (She claims never to be scared.) So they make a bet: Whoever first disturbs the other’s composure gets what they want most, a bed by the window (Marilyn) or a bed in an otherwise empty room (Abby). Their machinations eventually involve not only Scotty but their uncomfortable children.
It's fun to watch the irresistible force of charm go up against the immovable object of blunt anger. Yet we realize how they diminish themselves with the childish bet, as their competition escalates past a grimly humorous prankiness to cruelty and a subtle contempt. Neither can win, it seems, until both of them lose and gain some self-realization. And our sympathies shift as we learn more about the quarreling contestants.
Both Langille and Lico pull off the difficult task of keeping us interested in people who seem one-dimensional at first; their performances grow in stature as the characters grow in complexity. Director Matt Webster eases us into the weightier material at the right speed, stressing laughs at first and then downplaying (though not abandoning) them as we get to know the women better.
Lighting and scenic designer Kaylin Gess has created a clever set made up of revolving pieces that let us leave the shared room for other locales, sometimes in the open air. And someone has chosen musical backgrounds with keen intelligence, from Danny Elfman-like spooky percussion to Tiny Tim singing The Doors’ “People Are Strange.” Strange indeed, in the world of David Lindsay-Abaire.
If You’re Going: “Ripcord” runs through July 28 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in Duke Family Performance Hall on the Davidson College campus.
Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews about two times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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