NEW YORK—“The truth is the truth and if you try to get around it, it will come after you and take you down.” This line, from Theresa Rebeck’s drama “Dig” proves to be quite accurate indeed. Presented by Primary Stages, the show can now been seen at 59E59 Theaters.
Fifty-something Roger (Jeffrey Bean) is a somewhat crotchety sort who likes things the way he likes things—which is also how he runs his Ohio plant store of the show’s title (only with a lowercase “d”). However, his well-ordered life is suddenly upended when 34-year-old Megan (Andrea Syglowski), a recovering alcoholic and ex-convict, returns to town in an attempt to rebuild her life after a failed suicide attempt.
Megan is also a media celebrity, thanks to a heavily publicized trial regarding the death of her young son. Released into the care of her ever-watchful and quite fed up father Lou (Triney Sandoval), who is also one of Roger’s oldest friends, Megan has come to the store to ask for a job as she desperately needs to keep herself busy when not at one of her substance abuse meetings or therapy sessions.
Well aware of her history and not wanting her around, Roger initially turns down her request. He also knows that Lou doesn’t want her anywhere near the store. Undeterred, Megan quickly charms Roger with the way she takes care of the plants, as well as the customers, who come in to buy them. It’s not long before she begins to take on more responsibilities at the store, such as convincing Roger to expand their inventory to include flowers, and even teaching him how to use a computer—all to the consternation of Everett (Greg Keller), Roger’s only other employee and the delivery truck driver.
After carefully setting all this up, Ms. Rebeck then deftly flips the script, the result of which changes the audience’s perceptions of what they’ve seen before and the opinions they had previously formed about the characters.
Other than a few dead spots, Ms. Rebeck’s direction is spot-on as her story draws the audience into a now sadly all-too-common situation. Megan may want to move on from something unspeakable, but her efforts to keep the pain bottled up inside threatens to send her into another alcoholic spiral—all while one character tries to deflect reality by refusing to come to terms with it, while another, perhaps, takes on more responsibility than deserved.
An interesting analogy can be seen via Roger’s demonstration of the practice of plant pruning. His explanation of how one cuts off superfluous matter and reshapes the remainder so the body of the plant has a better chance at life can also be applied to Megan’s situation—where the perception of facts can be altered to fit the needs of the person doing the alterations.
Ms. Syglowski is excellent as a woman who sees herself as irredeemable. Her performance powerfully conveys the anguish and horror she feels when forced to re-confront what happened. Mr. Bean comes off well as a quiet unassuming fellow who eventually realizes the importance of being able to open oneself to new possibilities.
Mr. Sandoval is strong as someone who, in his own way, is on more of a hair trigger than Megan. Having suffered through so much due to her actions over the years, he has long since lost trust in her. Yet, at the same time, he also carries his own guilt as he wonders what he might have done differently to alter past events.
Ms. Bacon does well as Molly, as she tries to dance around the elephant in the room when she and Megan first meet. Mr. Keller is okay as the somewhat annoying Everett, who, it turns out, has a darker personality than we first think. Mr. Mason is quietly devastating in his one pivotal scene that sets the stage for what is to follow and also for what took place beforehand.
Christopher and Justin Swader’s set design of the plant shop is very nice indeed. The lighting work by Mary Ellen Stebbins works perfectly, particularly for the show’s climactic scenes.
“Dig” illustrates how the concepts of redemption and learning to move on are indeed possible, but only if one is willing to face the reason for needing these things in the first place.
