UGA’s University Theatre recently produced Aunt Dan and Lemon written by Wallace Shawn as a part of their studio series. Studio series productions use minimal sets and technical elements to focus on acting and directing.
In this witty, controversial play, Wallace Shawn invites the audience into Lemon’s reality. Most of the play takes place in 1960s England at the height of political unrest due to the Vietnam War and the sexual revolution. We find Lemon, a troubled young woman, reflecting on her adolescence, particularly her summers with Aunt Dan.
The play, directed by UGA professor Farley Richmond, had a set consisting of an arm chair, lamp, side table and two rugs downstage right, and a long table and five chairs at center stage. The play starred UGA sophomore Paige Pulaski as Lemon and UGA MFA student Jennifer Schottstadt as Aunt Dan.
Aunt Dan, short for Danielle, is an American who Lemon’s parents befriended while studying at Oxford. The entire family grows fond of Aunt Dan, but this fondness quickly changes. As Lemon’s father’s health starts to fail, and Aunt Dan and Lemon’s mother have political disagreements, the dynamics change. This causes Aunt Dan to draw more toward Lemon, and they develop an intimate relationship.
I must admit I went into the play with my own opinions about the production, because I read the play a few years ago. I was particularly curious about how they were going to keep such a wordy play engaging for an audience. The play consists mostly of monologues where Lemon and Aunt Dan are speaking to each other or the audience. And the show has a run time of two hours without an intermission.
The actors worked hard to make sure that monologues were manageable for the audience by infusing humor and using inflection. Lemon speaks candidly to the audience, which could have been boring, but it was engaging. And despite a recent obsession with the Nazis and their usage of genocide, she is rather charming. The actors were also working with British and Spanish accents. And though these accents were not very good, they did help to give the long speeches some life.
Shawn never reveals Lemon’s exact diagnosis, but it is implied that she is a schizophrenic. The audience watches snippets of selected stories from Lemon’s past play out. Lemon inserts herself into the scenes as she narrates them. Ironically, Lemon seems in control of her opinions, which are very controversial, but seems out of control of her life and relationships.
This is perhaps why she admires Aunt Dan, who seems to have an affair with everyone she encounters. Aunt Dan does not seem to have a past, because she is so much in the present, but she is a large part of Lemon’s. I must say Aunt Dan seemed more reasonable in script, no matter how controversial, but on stage she seems an over-educated, self-righteous, abrasive, idealist especially concerning Henry Kissinger.
This is obvious in a well-directed scene where Aunt Dan and Lemon’s mother argue about Kissinger’s policies during Vietnam. In a seemingly endless (but quite funny) rant, Aunt Dan cannot seem to understand why the media is criticizing Kissinger’s pro-American tactics.
However, the most engaging scenes of the show took place when Aunt Dan spoke about her swinger friends from Oxford. One specific scene involved a mysterious Spaniard, swindled by a beautiful, money-hungry woman named Mindy. The blocking in these scenes made me feel like I was peeking in on something scandalous, but I could not look away.
This production was OK overall, but the delivery of such socially and politically heavy material by such young actors was admirable. Lemon’s balance of innocence and controversy made her one of the strangest characters I have ever seen on stage, which fit the script perfectly.
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