When a librarian in a Dutch town found a Baedecker travel guide returned 113 years late, he set out to find the culprit who kept it out and thus owes a fine. Now, after a long search that's taken him around the world, "The Librarian" is out of work but in on the borrower's identity and his mythical importance.
Underneath the Lintel purports to be a one-night-only presentation by "The (ex)Librarian" about his quest and findings. Starting by showing marginalia in the returned book and an unclaimed ticket for dry-cleaned trousers, he explains clues he amassed. Slides of people, places and period art illustrate his travels and speculations. He also scribbles on a chalkboard and slips in jokes about going to the theater on his various journeys. More seriously, he shows he regrets a love he lost for want of claiming it. Long before his conclusion, it's clear he's been pursuing The Wandering Jew. Legend has it that this man who, due to fright, denied a place of respite under his lintel for Jesus en route to
Golgotha, must not rest until The Second Coming. But The Librarian celebrates his existence and shares what he feels is the wanderer reveling in human existence.
It's not a bad story. Certainly, Richard McWilliams looks the part of The Librarian, acting so eager to tell his story, so pleased with his cleverness, so needing to justify leaving his work to satisfy his curiosity.
Director Kate Alexander ensures that he's never static. He enters from the audience, moves about frequently using the illustrative props, shows the slides and sips water between long speeches. Like most one-person presentations, this requires exceptional commitment and energy. McWilliams exhibits these, along with sharing Alexander's insights.
So why does time seem to drag? It's not a good drama. A story that would do better as a more intimate oral interpretation, Lintel never escapes being essentially a lecture. The set cluttered with props extending out to the side stages doesn't need them all to suggest periods and places traveled. Lights strung across the stage aren't functional. Slides are as mundane as the script's call for them.
As a whole, after a stimulating musical overture, prosy Underneath the Lintel keeps existing until it bores.
