The play sets itself up as a psychological examination of life in turmoil, but Orville and the rest of the characters are painted in broad strokes at New Jersey Repertory Company.
It’s strange when a play’s title functions as a spoiler, but it is not long into Adam Szymkowicz’s “Mercy” before the 80-minute play’s name undercuts any question of climactic drama. Along the way there are few other surprises, as the world-premiere play full of grand ideas struggles to achieve its vision of trauma’s debilitating effects.
Orville (Jacob A. Ware) is the single father of an infant because his wife died after being hit by a drunken driver. His father, Walter (Dan Grimaldi), helps with the baby as Orville transitions back to work, but his insufferably insensitive boss, Brenda (Nandita Shenoy), cannot restrain herself from reminding him of his grief while making sexual advances on her newly single underling.
Wracked by grief, anger, guilt and confusion, Orville happens upon Ian (Christopher Daftsios), the drunken driver who killed his wife, out of jail awaiting trial. Following Ian for reasons that even Orville does not quite understand, he finds himself at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, where he strikes up a conversation and a relationship with the killer of his wife. (Ian does not know who Orville is.) But meeting the man only exacerbates Orville’s rage, and the play builds around his conflicted notions of how to respond to the existence of a man who gets to live on while the mother of his child does not.
The play sets itself up as a psychological examination of life in turmoil, but Orville and the rest of the characters are painted in broad strokes. Walter, a widower after more than 40 years of marriage, has some fine moments of fatherly guidance, but the comedy of his dating life undercuts the play’s drama, and Brenda’s tone deafness can only be the stuff of caricature.
The most compelling character is Ian, who New Jersey Repertory Company regular Daftsios effectively crafts into a man more pitiable than villainous. Of course, this renders Orville’s blind rage crass. Certainly it is understandable that a man would struggle or refuse to see the complex person behind the killer of his wife, but Orville’s tunnel vision does not a round character make.
The most interesting work in “Mercy” is by scenic designer Jessica Parks. A mainstay at the Long Branch theater, Parks is consistently inventive in her ability to achieve a variety of spaces on a small stage without feeling cramped. Together with Jill Nagle’s lights, Parks’ design captures seven independent spaces with impressive efficiency.
If the play’s ending is clear from its early stages, at least the question of how each new location will take shape on stage offers some drama.
MERCY
New Jersey Repertory Company
179 Broadway, Long Branch
Tickets: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/93), running through July 15.
Patrick Maley may be reached at patrickjmaley@gmail.com. Find him on Twitter and Instagram @PatrickJMaley. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook.