Theater Review: Drama blooms in The Seedbed

By Madeline Schulman

Today’s cliché from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. When we meet Hannah (Gina Costigan) and Thomas (Kevin Hogan) at the start of Bryan Delaney’s electrifying new play, The Seedbed, now having its world premiere at NJ Rep, they seem like a happy couple.

Michael Louis Serafin-Wells (Mick) and Cathryn Wake (Maggie) in The Seedbed at NJ Rep. (SuzAnne Barabas photo)

She has just driven miles to surprise him with a pair of Java sparrows for their 17th anniversary, and they are awaiting the arrival of their 18-year-old daughter (yes, Thomas is not her biological father) Maggie (Cathryn Wake) who has lived in Holland for the past six months, battling alcoholism. Hannah has inherited enough money for Thomas to leave his job as a science teacher and pursue his hobby of ornithology in their lovely Irish home (a clever set by Jessica Parks).

The first fissure in the happy façade is that Maggie arrives with her friend, Mick (Michael Louis Serafin-Wells). The second is that Mick is not the lovely Irish lad her parents might have envisioned, but a rough-looking Englishman of about fifty, with a Cockney accent. The third is that Maggie and Mick are engaged.

Even without an intrusive fourth party, clearly all is not well. Why do Thomas and Hannah allude to unspecified problems in their marriage? Why does Thomas shrink from the sight of Maggie in a very pretty strapless green dress? What has kept Maggie away so long, and why do she and her father stare at each other uncomfortably instead of rushing to embrace after a long separation?

Some questions are answered by the end of the first act, when Thomas has a memorable breakdown over two glasses of milk, but there are more shocking revelations in the second act.

Mick is a florist, and the gradual reveal of family secrets and the part each member has played in the catastrophe is like a flower slowly opening. Also, thinking about Thomas’s hobby, it is like a chick slowly hatching from an egg.

Everyone reacts differently. Hannah tries to keep her happy face on, Thomas sits up late at night with a bottle of gin, and Maggie struggles to pack up and escape from her dysfunctional family dynamics. I

found Mick enigmatic. In spite of his two powerful monologs, one in which he overwhelms Hannah with a hilarious yet menacing series of erotic floral double entendres, and one in which he tells Thomas the dramatic story of how he met Maggie, I was never sure of his motives or sincerity. The actors bring out the nuances in four complex characters.

The final tableau left me in a state of shock. On a lighter note, no birds, animatronic or otherwise, were hurt in the course of the play. With all the tension in the air, I was afraid for those Java sparrows!

The Seedbed runs though Nov. 15 with regular performances on Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 p.m. NJ Rep is located at 179 Broadway, Long Branch. For tickets and more info, visit njrep.org or call 732-229-3166.