Syracuse Stage’s well-crafted, inspirational ‘The Miracle Worker’ delivers

Fine cast and skillful directing captures the many facets of the celebrated play and conveys a message likely to resonate with audiences of all ages

By David Feldman
http://cnycafemomus.com/David_Feldman.html

William Gibson said that when he wrote The Miracle Worker –– first as a television drama in 1957 and then when it became a Broadway hit in 1959 (winning four Tonys and catapulting Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft to stardom) –– everybody knew the story of Helen Keller, whose autobiography had been required reading in schools throughout the country for decades.  But by the 1980s the story of the blind and deaf Alabama girl who became a national inspiration after learning to communicate (thanks to the efforts of her teacher, Annie Sullivan) seemed to have almost disappeared from the national consciousness, he once told me.  

Syracuse’s Stage production features two outstanding performances: Anna O’Donoghue, as a feisty Annie, and the enormously talented 11-year-old Jacqueline Baum, whose stunning work as Helen marks her first ever onstage role.  There’s some fine directing by Paul Barnes, who’s sensitive to the fact this is really Annie’s play.  She’s the one who makes things happen and who brings a wild child into the world of knowledge despite enormous odds.  Too many directors have become smitten by Helen’s part and its potential (and that of an energetic and talented young performer) to steal the show.  

I wish Michael Vaughn Sims’s set were as successful.  There’s the Keller family dining room to one side, Annie’s bedroom up and off to another, the front porch to the side and down from the dining room.  All well and good.  But there’s also a front door that leads nowhere.  Ditto a door that should lead to a kitchen but enters to a backdrop of the outdoors.  And there’s a space stage right that at different times serves as an asylum in Massachusetts (where Annie and her brother were sent as children), as the Perkins School in Boston where Annie is trained, and again as the summer house where Annie takes Helen for two weeks to take her away from the intrusive overprotection of her family.  But that space serves none of these locations well.  Then there’s the water pump, placed so prominently down front and dead center that it telegraphs the climax of the play and distracts us from some important dramatic action upstage (especially in the subplot).  It all violates Gibson’s original caution that "the less set there is, the better" so we won’t be distracted from all that physical action and powerful drama.  

Yes, there is a subplot –– although it’s easy to overlook because of the fierce contest between willful Helen and the determined Annie.  It’s the story of Captain Keller vs. his son, Jamie.  James Lloyd Reynolds brings the right amount of strength to his role as the overbearing former Confederate officer, and he knows how to lower the energy level for some well-placed comic moments.  Jamie (somewhat underplayed by Eric Gilde) struggles to overcome his domineering father and also to reconcile his own feelings against having had a loving mother replaced after her death by the Captain’s second wife, Kate (Regan Thompson, doing fine work in a part that can easily be overshadowed by Helen and Annie).  But just when the subplot reaches its climax, and Jamie finally becomes a man in his own right, our attention is diverted from his actions up in the dining room to some noisy stage business down at that way-too-prominent water pump.  

To see this play, rather than only to read the script, is to become aware of just how much physical action Gibson puts into it.  Consider the delightful segment where Annie is locked in her room by Helen.  Captain Keller, ever the clueless Southern gentleman, insists on carrying her down a ladder despite her protestations that she can easily climb down herself.  And there’s the famous dining room scene, all action and no dialogue, when Annie kicks the family out and spends the better part of a day teaching Helen to feed herself and even fold her napkin.  Too many directors give that scene away to Helen.  But Barnes’s direction puts the major focus where it should be –– on Annie’s efforts. 

DETAILS BOX:
What: The Miracle Worker by William Gibson, performed by Syracuse Stage
Where: Archbold Theatre, 820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse
When: Through April 23
Length: 2 hours and 45 minutes, including two 15-minute intermissions
Tickets: Adults, $25 to $48; 40 and under, $25; 18 and under $16; student rush, $15. Call 315-443-3275, or www.SyracuseStage.org
Family guide: Recommended for audiences of all ages.  Note: Many of the performances are open-captioned or sign language-interpreted.  Call the box office for more information