Photo Credit: Paul Ruffolo
Peter Michaels is an elderly man determined to save the loons inhabiting an island across from his summer home in New Hampshire. Sarah is a local teenager hired to clean his neighbors’ house next door. The only way Peter knows how to do this is to scream into a bullhorn, “No wake!” to get boaters and jet skiers to slow down. Sarah’s ways are much more direct—and effective. This is the premise of No Wake by Wisconsin playwright Erica Berman, which had its world premiere at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre last weekend, and while Peter and Sarah are at odds with each other (and themselves), the two find a way to eventually connect and help each other through the pain of loss and loneliness.
Under the skillful direction of Kayleigh Kitzman and its two fine actors, Hannah Shay (Sarah) and Robert Spencer (Peter), No Wake moves us in subtle ways, its gentle pull of basic human emotion calling to us like the cries of the loons. The play’s leisurely charm shines as bright as an endless summer sun throughout. But it’s the crisp, taut dialogue that snaps us back into the real-time moment—be it comedic (a critter on the loose in the kitchen) or tragic (the loss of a loved one).
Shay and Spencer provide a precise counterbalance to each other; Sarah’s sassy teenage retorts are a spot-on bullseye to Peter’s generational preaching, and Peter’s father-like advice fills a void in Sarah as deep as the lake facing them. It’s ironic that some of the plays’ best moments are when the two characters are talking to themselves or, quite often, to the loons. They reveal much about their own pain—and the “stuckedness” of it—until they realize that each needs the other to find the courage to, finally, move forward and move on. They are the like loons, themselves—calling out in alarm or just to find another of their own kind—and it’s a pair of wonderful performances to watch.
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No Wake leaves us with “the ripple effect” of the importance of connecting with others despite our differences while the “waves” of pain and loneliness wash over us, eventually guiding us back to shore.
Through March 15 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, 158 N. Broadway.
