The battle of wills between an accomplished writer/professor and a promising student creates the necessary conflict in Pulitzer Prize-winning Donald Margulies’ 1997 play, Collected Stories.The play begins in 1990 as renowned short story writer Ruth Steiner meets with a student to analyze the latter’s writing. Instead of meeting on campus, Ruth suggests they meet at her Greenwich Village apartment. It is the same apartment where Ruth has lived for 30 years. The student, amazed at being admitted to Ruth’s inner sanctum, is almost too overcome to speak. She looks around reverently as Ruth, amused, watches her. Lisa Morrison, the student, compares her present moment to “having a religious experience.”
For the next six years, the two women will spend a great deal of time in each other’s lives. Lisa moves from wide-eyed student to faithful assistant to becoming a published writer. The prickly Ruth takes all the credit for her student’s transformation. She is simultaneously pleased at and envious of Lisa’s early success, which so closely mirrors Ruth’s own path so many years ago.
Although the playwright infuses some humor into the script, little of it comes out in C. Michael Wright’s production. Perhaps some of the dialogue is funnier to New Yorkers, as this play is very much about New York literary circles. But some of it strikes a personal note. For instance, Ruth makes it known from the start that her way is the only way. Sometimes, this attitude might seem funny. Sometimes, it isn’t.
Ruth is more than slightly displeased when Lisa submits a story to a journal without her knowledge. She finds out only because the story is accepted for publication. Lisa, who behaves like a kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar, attempts to smooth things over. But this marks the first of many scuffles between the two women.
Although some attempt is made to balance out the characters’ personalities, the audience’s sympathy will always go towards Ruth. Aging and alone, Ruth is soon to be a mere footnote in literary history. And she knows it. Writing is a solitary occupation, after all.
Sarah Day, as Ruth, gives a juicy performance that hits all the right emotional notes. She moves with the weariness of one who has grown tired of fame. Conversely, she clings to it as the only measure of her worth. Day delivers a well-crafted performance that lingers long after the play has ended.
Laura Frye is a bit less comfortable as Lisa. One suspects her character is more manipulative, and less innocent, than Frye lets on. Still, Frye certainly looks the part as a tall, youthful blonde.
Collected Stories has a respectable past, having been performed off-Broadway in two productions (one with the legendary Uta Hagen), and on Broadway with Linda Lavin (TV’s “Alice”). The Broadway show played a limited engagement in 2010. The Broadway cast also repeated their performances on a PBS-TV special.
One reviewer described Lavin’s performance as “ferocious and emotionally raw.” That is not the case in Milwaukee, however. Day seems far more subdued than Lavin probably was. However, in the final scenes, Day allows her character’s ugly side to emerge in full fury. The audience does not expect such a reaction, and neither does Lisa. Lisa decides to blame her idol’s unacceptable behavior on a recent illness. In any case, Ruth’s outburst comes too close to the end of the play for the character, or the audience, to recover.
The play’s set - Ruth’s spacious but slightly run-down Greenwich Village apartment – is beautifully rendered, right down to the scuffed wood floors and built-in bookcases. Books and artwork dominate the room; the furniture looks as it probably did 30 years ago. The costumes depict Ruth as an academic with no taste for trends. Lisa, on the other hand, goes from preppy chic to cocktail glamour. As the costumes so beautifully suggest, Lisa must become the popular writer who is being hailed as “the voice of her generation.” And she must also adjust to a life without Ruth, the woman who got her there.
