'Big Blue Nail' lacks focus
One of my colleagues insists good writing has as much to do with what a writer leaves out of a story as what he or she includes.
He's right.
Paring down the narrative, jettisoning superfluous elements invariably makes for a tighter, more focused work. That applies as much to playwrights as it does to reporters. It definitely applies to Carlyle Brown's "A Big Blue Nail," an examination of obsession, fame and betrayal directed and designed by Loy Arcenas. The fantastical, thought-provoking but not entirely successful drama centers on Robert Peary (a haunted Larry Neumann Jr.), the man credited with reaching the North Pole first, and his black assistant and fellow explorer Matthew Henson (the fiery Anthony Fleming III). Henson's role as co-attainer had been largely ignored because of his race and his expedition leader's megalomania.
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Tidier storytelling focusing on the men's relationship, their journey and their conflict and the elimination of non-essentials like Peary's wife (played by Laura T. Fisher whose talents are wasted playing a character who disappears in the second act) would have benefited the play. As it is, Brown ("The African Company Presents Richard III") has one half of a good play. That would be the superior second act which imagines Peary and Henson's final push to the Pole as well as their final meeting at the island home of the ailing, guilt-ridden Peary. There, the conflicted Henson seeks acknowledgment of his role in the discovery from the man who insisted "together we'll nail down the Pole for all time," but then turned his back on the man who helped him do it.
Set in 1919, 10 years after Peary and Henson's final expedition, the story plays out against Arcenas' wintry, menacing backdrop on a minimalist set. It unfolds as a combination of conversations between the former friends; flashbacks featuring a type of Inuit chorus led by Joseph Anthony Foronda with Esteban Andres Cruz, Narciso Lobo and Remigio Ortiz, and nightmares, in which The Future (Bethany Alexander) and the trixter Tupi (Scott Baity Jr.) feed his obsession and seduce him with promises of fame.
If the more fantastical elements create a muddle, the scenes between Neumann and Fleming -- featuring Brown's most elegant and perceptive writing -- clarify the story.
The show's best moments involve the vigorous exchanges between Neumann -- one of Chicago's most thoughtful actors in that you can see him reasoning and evaluating -- and Fleming, a potent, impassioned actor. Their performances reveal men striving for the same thing: significance. For one nothing less than world adoration will suffice. For the other, it takes the validation of just one man. This is the heart of "A Big Blue Nail." How much more powerful would it have been had Brown concentrated on it and let the rest melt away?
"A Big Blue Nail"
2 1/2 stars out of four
Location: Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago
Times: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays through March 2
Running Time: About 2 hours, including intermission
Tickets: $20-$45
Parking: Discounted parking in the Children's Memorial Hospital parking garage
Box office: (773) 871-3000 or www.victorygardens.org
Rating: For adults, includes some nudity