Tim Daly (left) plays Mark, a divorced lawyer seeking to reconnect with Helen (Jayne Atkinson), a long-ago lover who has become a successful author, in Lia Romeo’s Still.
The title of Lia Romeo’s play Still, it must be clarified, is unrelated to manufacturing moonshine in the mountains of Appalachia. Rather, her wistful two-hander is about seniors reconnecting—the kind of story that pops up periodically in bridal pages about two spouses whose longtime partners have died and who have somehow reconnected with their youthful heartthrobs. The stories carry an inherent charm, one that is aided immeasurably by two superb performers, Jayne Atkinson and Tim Daly.
Mark and Helen begin a heart-to-heart after their meet-up in his hotel room.
The drama begins with drinks and conversation in a low-key restaurant (the tinkling piano background is by sound designer Hidenori Nakajo). The writing and the excellent direction by Adrienne Campbell-Holt establish the characters, Mark and Helen, as two people having a rendezvous after a long separation. Their exchange appears innocuous, but it launches Romeo’s theme, as Helen says:
You know what I’ve heard? The cells in your body completely renew themselves every seven years. I mean they’re all renewing themselves all the time, obviously, but after seven years you’re a completely different person. On a cellular level.
Exposition is a tricky thing, but one understands immediately that neither character is the same person the other once knew—their cells have turned over innumerable times. Both actors maintain an engaging, sometimes hesitant air as their histories unfold. Helen is a writer who has never married. She has had partners over the years, and she has embarked on a new book after a period of not writing. The new book is a more personal one than her previous ones.
For his part, Daly’s Mark is newly divorced after 29 years. He has spent 40 years as a lawyer, a job that he had only sporadic passion for. He has two daughters, both married. He interprets one of Helen’s characters as a gloss on himself:
Mark: The guy, what was his name, in Sky Harbor—
Helen: Claude? … Just because he was a lawyer.
Mark: A lawyer, who worked in-house at a bank, and married a—what did you call her?—a simpering brown-haired woman …
Helen: I put things together, I draw things from—here, and there, and people think oh, that’s me, but it’s not. Maybe one little thing is—a job, or a phrase, or a—style of coat.
Mark has followed Helen’s successes, as she has followed his. Photographs by Joey Moro.
As in real life, Helen’s characters derive from bits and pieces of real people. The mixture of nostalgia, romance and rue is calibrated lovingly by Campbell-Holt. Mark and Helen kiss, and he invites her to his hotel room. But Helen has had breast cancer, so first they issue warnings, in a rare lapse into sitcom dialogue:
Mark: I have a spare tire.
Helen: I have scars on my chest.
Mark: I have a plate in my elbow.
Helen: I have three fake teeth.
Mark: I have arthritis in my knees.
The second half expands on the theme as it takes an unexpected turn. Mark confides to Helen that he has been approached to run for Congress. Helen is at first delighted—until she learns that he is a Republican. She doesn’t see how he can be one—but he is, and has always been, a conservative.
Helen: You’d have to support Trump, if you were. … And that’s dangerous!
Mark: There are dangerous people on both sides.
Helen: It’s not the same! He’s trying to overturn—
Mark: My point is—we have to meet each other in the middle. And I think—I think I could do that.
If it all sounds a bit predictable, Romeo sidesteps pat answers. The actors have so firmly established their characters’ likability, helped by their own charisma, that one’s interest is unlikely to flag. And despite a few hiccups in the writing—what congressional kingmakers would approach a 67-year-old establishment conservative to run for a House seat nowadays (both characters mention their ages, and Daly and Atkinson, 65, use their own)?—the show generally avoids implausibility. (There is another sitcom sequence involving Helen tossing objects from her purse, but it’s followed by a quick corrective: a tender, low-key delivery of an Elvis Presley hit, “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” by Helen to her own faltering ukulele accompaniment, that sets the tone aright.)
The play ends with a glimmer of hope. Romeo doesn’t ignore the odds against Mark and Helen’s future together, but the marvelous performances of her stars make one yearn for their ultimate reunion.
The Colt Coeur production of Lia Romeo’s Still runs through May 18 at the DR2 Theatre (103 E. 15th St.). Evening performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m. Matinees are at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. For tickets and more information, call (212) 239-6200 or visit coltcoeur.org/still.
Play: Lia Romeo
Direction: Adrienne Campbell-Holt
Scenic Design: Alexander Woodward
Costume Design: Barbara A. Bell
Lighting Design: Reza Behjat
Sound Design: Hidenori Nakajo
