"Death where is thy sting-a-ling-ling?" asked the poet E.E. Cummings. Elliot Shoenman answers the question in his new play, "AfterMath," which is now in its world-premiere run at the Odyssey Theater. Shoenman focuses on a mother and her two grown children trying to cope with the recent suicide of the family patriarch, Bob, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge, leaving behind a 14-word note: "I can't take it any more. Take care of the kids. Sell the car."
The mother (the brilliant Annie Potts) deals with death's sting by laughing at it as best she can, in a Jewish, gallows-humor kind of way. The kids, 21-year-old Eric (Daniel Taylor) and 29-year-old Natalie (Meredith Bishop), react differently. Eric, a college student, alternates between moody silences and bursts of anger; Natalie, a TV weathercaster, by bickering constantly with her mother.
Bickering, arguing and shouting are the normal means of communication with these three edgy, wounded New Yorkers. They go at each other so loudly and viciously that at times murder seems imminent, only to suddenly pull back and undercut the rage with a choice wisecrack or joke.
Shoenman deserves a lot of credit for his skilful handling of the story; what could have been a dark, grim tale comes off in genuinely comedic fashion. The laughs come fast and hard in "AfterMath," but without trivializing the theme, the impact of death on a family's bonds.
Potts does a masterful job bringing the menopausal, slightly mad Julie to life; her power and charisma as an actor carry the play. Taylor and Bishop are skilled comic and dramatic foils, as is Michael Mantell as Chuck, the late Bob's best friend, a lawyer with handyman skills (and a thing for Julie).
Director Mark L. Taylor keeps the action moving along briskly without losing the play's humanity, and Gary Guidinger has designed an ingenious and effective set.
