Sweetest Swing hits it out of the park

Sweetest Swing hits it out of the park

by Miryam Gordon - SGN A&E Writer The Sweetest Swing in Baseball By Rebecca Gilman Directed by Shana Bestock Starring Heather Hawkins Coproduced by Artswest and Seattle Public Theater The Bathhouse Through April 13 We are who we believe ourselves to be. That's the intriguing message Rebecca Gilman seems to send us through her amusing story about a depressed artist who, in order to stay in the mental ward after a suicide attempt, consciously decides to take on the persona of Darryl Strawberry so the insurance company has to keep paying for her stay. There are quite a few jabs at the way insurance companies work or don't work, in this case, and what "bottom of the barrel" care buys you. It begins slowly, as Dana throws a few baseball references into her therapy session, like practice balls. They seem to go over the plate. So, she sharpens her delivery by getting coached in Strawberry minutiae by two other hospital inmates. They encourage her to keep her persona up so that no one will catch her faking and she begins to keep it up a bit too well. Heather Hawkins as Dana provides a steady, if admittedly depressive, center throughout the play. In inhabiting Dana, Hawkins lets go of most of her small acting tricks to play Dana with a reality that is firmly believable. She runs the gamut of emotions, from depressed to beginning to feel in control of her emotions to glimmers of actual happiness. She draws us to her to share her journey. When she first begins to insert Strawberry-isms into her therapy sessions, we're in on the joke. But eventually, the joke is on us, it seems. Very funny Gavin Cummins plays a psychopath who only wants to kill one person, and changes demeanor on a dime, which is startling and humorous. Trick Danneker plays the other patient, an amiable young alcoholic, who is the only one who seems to understand her. They are both solid support for Hawkins' Dana, but their characters, while sharply played, don't get very fleshed out. Kelly Kitchens gives a nuanced performance in her role as Dana's friend and art agent. Each supporting actor plays multiple roles and Karen Nelsen is equally good as the pompous, overblown art dealer and the sympathetic psychiatrist. She almost gives the illusion that there are two actresses in the play. But this is firmly about Dana and what she believes about herself. The mystery is whether she likes playing the role of Strawberry or if she is actually slowly going mad and finding the only way to enjoy life is to be someone else. The basic set, by Craig Wollam, is very spare - a little too spare - and apparently represents a baseball home plate, while props and tables are adroitly rolled in and out, quickly changing locations. It was probably easy to change theater locations that way. This is a first, perhaps of many, collaboration between two excellent midsized theaters in different parts of the city, possibly increasing the audience by drawing on their different patrons. Many productions are done for two or maybe four weeks and they're over. It's a satisfying experience for the actors to be able to inhabit a role for a longer period. Those at the Bathhouse will likely see a more seasoned version of the play that opened at Artswest, just because of that ability to prolong the part. Shana Bestock directs with compassion and understanding. The choices she could have made might have been to sharpen the caustic tendencies of the characters in order to hype the humor, but the better choice is her subtle approach, allowing both the gravity and the humor to take turns. This allows that enigmatic message, "you are who you think you are," to penetrate through like eucalyptus, waking you up and making you think. Ultimately, it's a home run. For more information, go to www.seattlepublictheater.org or call 206-524-1300. Comments on reviews go to sgncritic@gmail.com.