A West End hit now transferred to Broadway, The Height of the Storm represents a rare opportunity pairing the renowned British actors Jonathan Pryce and Dame Eileen Atkins. Their performances are indeed stunning, but the play by the French playwright, Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton, is frayed around the edges. Many questions are raised but unanswered. Some but not all of this is intentional. (Connecting dots and loose ends was the subject of a post-performance talk back.) Andre (Pryce) is a senior suffering an advance stage of dementia. (Based on family members a number of audience members attested to the accuracy of his behavior and symptoms.) Part of this entails mood elevation based on his memory lapses and consequent frustrations. There is a poetic pas de deux with Madeline (Atkins) as his care-providing wife. Echoing the condition scenes are replayed. One entails retakes of her preparing a mushroom omelet. There is discussion of an inadvertent death/ suicide of neighbors entailing poisonous mushrooms. The discussant reflected on this interpretation. So there are double and triple takes, particularly with the other characters, two daughters, a husband, and mysterious woman. One of the couple dies, but we are not clear which of them. Without prior knowledge or research, it is impossible to sort location and ethnicity. The main characters have French names, but the cast makes no attempt to be other than British. The scenic design by Anthony Ward evokes a British country home. It would have been simple for the translator to transpose the characters and locale to the UK. That would have no impact on the drama itself but would have avoided confusing gaffes and detours. Other than the superb lead performances, and adequate supporting ones, the drama is a mostly enervating experience. The script feels minor and overworked as well as tediously wordy. The impact of disease on a family is indeed devastating, But I feel oddly apathetic about these privileged bourgeois seniors and their bratty, grownup children. Their arguments about providing care might have been poignant but feel tedious.
