Silverthorne Theater Company, the Valley’s newest and most adventurous summer troupe, held a new-play competition last winter. Out of over 400 nationwide entries, Aidan’s Gift, by Kentuckian Elizabeth Orndorff, was the unanimous winner.
I say “adventurous” because this fledgling Equity company, now in its second year, has from the start reached for the unusual and risky. Last year’s inaugural season included Bertolt Brecht’s political fable The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and this year’s three-play program comprises a modern parable, an interethnic love story and, playing through this weekend at Silverthorne’s new, more accessible home in Greenfield, a world premiere.
It’s an imperfect but utterly compelling drama – imperfect because the ending doesn’t quite convince and there are a few missed plotting opportunities; compelling because it wrestles with large questions of faith, loss, vocation, pride and forgiveness in a lively and literate manner and centers on a fascinating, exasperating title character. That’s Father Aidan, a rather ornery Benedictine monk who has lost his faith and retreated into a bitter shell defended with self-loathing and biting humor.
Ten years ago, we learn, one of the novices under his tutelage left the monastery and the calling, and something about it has been eating at him ever since. The Abbot, finally fed up with Aidan’s belligerent isolation, assigns another young novice to his care, in hopes the challenge will pull him out of his self-imposed Slough of Despond. Aidan, who is stubbornly but wittily defensive, parries every helping hand that’s offered. (“That is a load of – forgive me, Father, for I am about to sin – bullshit.”)
The young man assigned to him – as penance or salvation? – is John Mark, who has transferred from another monastery (tellingly named Gethsemane) for mysterious reasons. Both Aidan and the monastic community are quickly entranced by the newcomer, who has a, yes, heavenly singing voice, but who also bears a guilty secret.
Carmela Lanza-Weil’s keenly observed production fields a strong trio of actors. Daniel Popowich is Father Abbot, stern but caring, teetering between patience and pique. Julian Findlay brings a fiery intensity to John Mark, glorying in the beauty of his musical gift while excoriating himself for his pride in it. And in the title role, Steve Henderson – by turns crabby, sardonic, empathetic and desolate – gives one of the season’s must-see performances as the profane, whiskey-slugging lost soul at the heart of this provocative play.
Through July 19, 8 p.m., Sloan Theater, Greenfield Community College, $16-$18 at the door, or reserve at 413-768-7514 or brownpapertickets.com. www.silverthornetheater.org.
Photo by John Iverson.
PS – If you go, take a sweater: the A/C is brawny!
If you’d like to be notified of future posts, email StageStruck@crocker.com
