Bittersweet farewell: Buffalo Theatre delivers exquisite revival of ‘Outgoing Tide’

For people suffering from dementia, there comes a point when recalling words becomes more challenging, recognizing family members becomes more difficult and atypical behavior becomes more pronounced. Often those symptoms occur well before the disease becomes debilitating.

That liminal space in time — when a patient comprehends what he or she is in the process of losing, but must stand by helplessly as cognition ebbs — is where we encounter Gunner Concannon, the husband and father navigating dementia’s early stages in “The Outgoing Tide,” Bruce Graham’s moving meditation on terminal illness and personal choice in an exquisite revival at Buffalo Theatre Ensemble.

We meet Gunner (Bryan Burke) on the shore of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, steps away from his summer home, where he fishes and converses with Jack (Nick DuFloth), who Gunner thinks is a new resident.

He’s not. Jack, as Gunner’s wife, Peg (Connie Canaday Howard), reminds him, is their middle-aged son who’s returned home at Gunner’s behest.

Thus commences Graham’s gently humorous — and for many, achingly relatable — play, which earned a 2011 Joseph Jefferson Award for new work following its Northlight Theatre premiere.

The play takes place over several days during which Peg informs Jack she intends to move them to an assisted living facility that can accommodate Gunner’s worsening condition. Watching her husband mistake the microwave for the television, searching for him after he wandered from their home, and preventing him from burning down their house after he left a newspaper on the stove has convinced the exhausted Peg that Gunner needs more care than she can provide.

After visiting the facility and observing its residents, Gunner rejects moving. Instead, he proposes another solution, one that ties up the loose ends of his life. That, in a sense, is what Graham’s play is about: a man coming to terms with his mortality while making amends for his mistakes.

The action unfolds on Jacqueline and Richard Penrod’s intriguingly abstract, tri-level set whose backdrop consists of ordered, evenly spaced, vertical slats — a reference, perhaps, to the weathered boardwalk near the Concannon home. Floating between the slats are odd shapes, which to me resembled puzzle pieces. According to Scott, they’re meant to evoke Chesapeake Bay’s disappearing islands, an allusion perhaps to Gunner’s diminishing mental state. But to me, the Penrods’ striking design — nicely enhanced by Christopher Kriz’s detailed sound design and entr’acte music and Garrett Bell’s autumnal lighting — suggested the amyloid plaques that build up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

Graham incorporates flashbacks to provide context for the characters’ relationships. Not all are successful. Some are downright awkward. But “The Outgoing Tide” is solid overall. Poignant without being mawkish, expressive but not overwrought, BTE’s production benefits from the sure, sympathetic hand of director Steve Scott, whose compassionately directed revival boasts note-perfect performances from BTE ensemble members.

DuFloth’s soon-to-be-divorced Jack, whose strained relationship with his youngest son echoes his relationship with Gunner, reflects the wary ambivalence of a grown man who still smarts from the thoughtless barbs his younger self endured from his father.

Burke’s performance as the prickly, opinionated Gunner — an imperfect man aware of his shortcomings and determined to make amends for them — is notable for its depth and restraint. It’s fine work from the always-impressive actor, who conveys not only Gunner’s gruff determination but the abiding love for his family he has always held but did not always express.

Ultimately it’s Howard, BTE’s longtime managing artistic director, who breaks our hearts as the ever-faithful Peg, who’s confronting her own loss of identity. Who is she, if not her family’s caregiver? I have long admired Howard’s clarity and candor. Her eloquent, deeply felt performance is as fine a testament to her skill as I recall. And one certainly worth seeing.

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“The Outgoing Tide”

3.5 stars

Location: Buffalo Theatre Ensemble at the McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn, (630) 942-4000, btechicago.com/, atthemac.org/

Showtimes: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through March 3

Tickets: $44

Running time: About 2 hours 10 minutes, with intermission

Rating: For teens and older, adult themes and language, references suicide