Discussing how technology has shaped and affected our personal lives and relationships in her 2011 book “Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other,” MIT professor Sherry Turkle writes, “We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Digital connections ... may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. Our networked life allows us to hide from each other, even as we are tethered to each other. We’d rather text than talk.”
In a way, humans are connected better and more efficiently than ever before, through the internet. Our devices allow us to talk, text, email and Facetime anytime. Yet there’s a distance that comes with it, a separation where we come to long for deeper connectedness, physical touch, the face-to-face.
In “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” playwright Sarah Ruhl addresses similar tensions of technology’s ability to transform, to both unite and isolate, and how memory lives and dies (or not) in the digital age.
Durango’s “found space” theatre company Merely Players will stage 7:30 p.m. performances of “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” Friday and Saturday and Oct. 1-3 at the VFW Hall in Durango.
“I think we can all agree: Technology is wonderful and terrible,” said Merely’s director, Mona Wood-Patterson, on one aspect of Ruhl’s play she was drawn to.
Episodic, mythic, cinematic, comedic and surreal, the play centers on Jean (played by Durango High grad Madeleine Meigs, who returns from New York City for the role), who finds the cellphone of a dead stranger (played by Conor Sheehan, another returning DHS grad). The phone takes Jean on a poetic, fantastical odyssey where, shaped by the living he left behind, the life and memory of the phone’s previous owner unfolds.
Using the concept of “found space,” the practice of staging plays outside of theaters or other traditional venues, longtime DHS theatre teachers Wood-Patterson and technical director/designer Charles Ford looked for compelling ways to incorporate the play’s themes and motifs of technology and memory.
The VFW Hall, for one, is a place rich with the memories of all the veterans and families who have come through, echoes of stories, celebrations, milestones, parties. Wood-Patterson and Ford believe this will impact the experience both for the Players and audiences.
“There’s something here that’s not tangible. There’s something here that’s spiritual,” Ford said of the VFW Hall. “It would be so different if this were in a theater…or if it was in a brand new commercial space (with) clean drywall and new carpets and everything was spic-and-span and clean.”
The crew is also incorporating the motif of windows. For one, looking at something through a window allows only limited connection with the subject.
“A window, it separates. If you’re looking in you can see, but you’re not a part of the experience,” Wood-Patterson said. “It’s like Facebook. It’s like a window in, but you’re not really there.”
Second, Ruhl has cited painter Edward Hopper as an influence. Ford and Wood-Patterson not only incorporated Hopper’s ubiquitous use of windows into the set design, but also his color palette.
Finding suitable spaces in a town the size of Durango isn’t always easy. And once found, challenges persist. The company couldn’t begin production inside the VFW until Sunday, less than five days before opening night. The space also will only seat 100, more than half the size they’d need to break even through ticket sales.
Regardless, Ford and Wood-Patterson relish the challenge and appreciate the unique character each new space brings. Wood-Patterson sees everything about the production of “Cell Phone” as integrated and holistic: the themes of the play, the found space, and the realities of live theater as an art form.
“In theatre, not only are the actors real, there’s not the window. The people next to you are palpable and breathing and engaged and laughing in a different way than happens in a movie theater.
“I feel like we crave in our society these opportunities to be together and share in a real way,” she said. “There’s a certain tension too when you watch a play...There’s that interaction. There’s no such thing as an invisible audience in theatre. They are a part of it.”
dholub@durangoherald.com. David Holub is the Arts & Entertainment editor for The Durango Herald
If you go
Durango’s “found space” theatre company Merely Players presents “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” written by Sarah Ruhl. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Oct. 1-3 at the VFW Hall (1550 Main Ave., Durango). Tickets are $22 and are available at www.durangoconcerts.com , or by calling 247-7657, or at the Durango Welcome Center (802 Main Ave.). Merely Players is also working with the domestic violence support organization Alternative Horizons, encouraging audiences to bring and donate their old cellphones.
