The University of Georgia’s theater department revived Wallace Shawn’s 1985 play, "Aunt Dan and Lemon," in the Cellar Theatre this week.
"Aunt Dan and Lemon" chronicles a series of disturbing flashbacks told through the eyes of Lemon (Paige Pulaski), a chronically ill woman whose joviality and pleasantly frank disposition often distract from the story’s core darkness. "Aunt Dan and Lemon" raises questions we ponder in our darkest moments, questions many of us never dare to ask aloud. Exploring and challenging the notions of compassion and morality, Shawn’s play, directed here by Farley Richmond, raises questions that that stuck with me for hours, even days, after leaving the theatre.
The play opens with Lemon seated contentedly in an armchair, surrounded by half-empty glasses of colorful fruit and vegetable juice concoctions. Makeup-free and hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, Lemon’s drab disposition paints an accurate picture of a reclusive woman living alone with the ghosts of her past.
Addressing the crowd with gentle ease, Lemon explains that due to her illness, which we never learn any particulars about, she was robbed of an adventurous life, never given any opportunity to see the world for herself. Instead she immerses herself in literature (books about the Nazis are her choice of late) while also living vicariously through the characters of her past. The most valuable lessons she’s learned about life stem from stories passed down to her by Danielle (Jennifer Schottstadt), also known as Aunt Dan, a close friend of Lemon’s parents. Aunt Dan captures the heart of young Lemon with her infectious passion and unapologetic outspokenness, and the two grow to need each other, and love each other, in a more twisted and complicated way than tradition would have it.
Lemon raises daring questions when speaking to the audience, at one point offering a shocking alternative point of view on the Nazi death camps. Are we really so different from the Nazis, she wonders? Killing is unpleasant, certainly, but what is so wrong with admitting that there is something inside of us that wants to kill? The answer: compassion. This emotion is beaten into our consciences from birth.
We are told that it is right to be compassionate, but Lemon wants to know why. I couldn’t help but shift uncomfortably in my seat when Lemon asked how the Nazis killing the Jews was any different from us poisoning cockroaches in our homes once they become an unavoidable problem. None of us would do it if it weren’t necessary, she rationalizes, but unfortunately, they felt that it was.
The play is an ongoing intellectual debate, stacked with extraordinarily drawn out monologues debating life’s most challenging moral dilemmas. Pulaski’s gleeful tone adds an unexpected lightness to the profound nature of her ideas, creating a chummy sort of camaraderie between the audience and herself. She embodies the essence of Lemon’s complex character to a tee, allowing a childlike innocence to bleed through her adult façade. Pulaski delivers extensive monologues flawlessly, nailing the English accent the entire show.
The standout performance of the evening came from Schottstadt as Aunt Dan, who is a dead ringer for Anne Hathaway in both physical appearance and natural talent. It is impossible to not be captivated by Schottstadt’s uninhibited confidence and raw emotion throughout the play. Schottstadt steals the show with her impassioned rants against anyone who speaks against Henry Kissinger, with whom she is almost humorously and psychotically obsessed throughout the play. Defending his honor and justifying his wartime decisions, (from this we can gather the story is set during the Vietnam War,) Aunt Dan becomes enraged at Kissinger’s critics. “What did YOU decide today?” Aunt Dan demands of them. Who are we judge his choices, as we sit in our comfortable homes, with our mundane lives that affect no one but ourselves?
Aunt Dan and Lemon dares to ask if we are actually as different from the Nazis as we prefer to think. Is compassion real, or is it a notion we think we feel because we know we’re supposed to? The painful honesty of the production made me both uneasy and unsure. Am I offended or intrigued? It’s something I’m still deciding.
Though the dialogue was compelling, all I could think the entire play was how much I’d prefer it to be a musical. Maybe I just thought the Nazi comments would have been a little less uncomfortable had Lemon belted them in an inappropriately upbeat ballad.
The script was indeed thought provoking, but long-winded and exhausting at times. The acting, however, was impeccable. The moral debates discussed in "Aunt Dan and Lemon" continue to haunt me days later, so despite the play’s occasional rambling moments, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make a surprisingly significant impression on me, and I’m a little irritated that I might be thinking about this play for weeks to come.
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