‘The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds’

The Princeton Summer Theater concludes its summer season with little-known playwright Paul Zindel’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama.

By: Stuart Duncan
   Paul Zindel is a nearly forgotten playwright from the late ’60s and early ’70s. His star rose quickly, shone briefly, then faded as fast as it ascended. He wrote a few plays, some novels and children’s works. His 1965 play, carrying the unwieldy and unlikely title, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, won the Pulitizer Prize for drama in 1971. The Princeton Summer Theater on the Princeton University campus is concluding its summer season with the show.
   It is an odd choice, not just because the play doesn’t have strong characterizations — Zindel was noted for his female roles. Gamma Rays has five females and no men. PST seems fully equipped to handle the material; in many ways, this is its most polished work of the summer. Rather, it is an odd choice because 30 years after it was produced on Broadway and won the prizes it has so little to say to a modern audience.
   The action — about 80 minutes worth, including intermission — takes place in a two-level, sub-street-level apartment where Beatrice (Erin Carter) lives with her two daughters. Ruth (Andrea Spillman), the eldest, already has had a bout with the loony bin, although she is still in high school. Tillie (Shira Concool) is so afraid of her shadow she finds it hard to speak to anyone except, perhaps, her pet rabbit. To call the trio dysfunctional is to insult the term.
   Momma Beatrice takes in ancient boarders at $50 per week (it was the 1960s, remember). One simply named "Nanny" (Kelleyanne Calpin) is with them now. She appears with her clumping walker from time to time to slurp a cup of tea with honey. No dialogue — probably a blessing.
   Momma shouts at each of her kids with an equal-opportunity abuse spirit, but she funnels "ciggies" to Ruth. From time to time, she finds whatever booze is on hand and then screams that she is going to kill Tillie’s cat. Almost from the start, you know the cat won’t survive the 80 minutes.
   Somehow, amid all this dreck, playwright Zindel manages to make you care that Tillie’s science exhibit receives its full due. She has exposed marigold seeds to various levels of gamma rays to see what effect it may have on growth. They may laugh at her at school; they may remember Momma as "a loon"; Ruth may mock her; but Tillie still shows a vestige of the human spirit. That exhibit means something.
   We are close to theater of the absurd, but that category demands attention to form, and here, the action is too dysfunctional to properly fit the definition. More importantly, playwright Zindel pulls, just a little, at our heart strings and we feel the tension. It doesn’t last long — a brief cameo by Liza Minno as one of Tillie’s competitors reminds us how close the real world is to madness.
   The acting is on a very high level. Ms. Carter is particularly effective in her tirades, her moods swinging, frantically trying to find solid ground. It is her second major role of the summer — just last week she played another lady called Beatrice, this one the sharp-tongued adversary of Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. The lady has a real future, should she decide to try it in theater.
   Ms. Spillman is a delight as Ruth, busting out in aggressive passion at the drop of an ash. Ms. Concool is a trifle soft-spoken as Tillie; so much so that one has trouble hearing her across the theater.
   You undoubtedly will go a long time before getting a chance to see the show again. This outing is full of fire along with froth. Perhaps you can find the relevance.
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds plays at the HamiltonMurray Theater, Princeton University,Princeton, Aug. 16-19. Performances: Thurs.-Sun. 8 p.m. For information, call (609) 258-7062.