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December 4, 2004
Edition: Final
Page: A2

In "Children of a Lesser God" at Appleseed Productions, director Sharee Lemos and a superbly talented cast revisit one of the strongest dramas of the early 1980s, capturing its power afresh

Jim Leeds (Joe Pierce), a speech therapist at a school for the deaf, and Sarah Norman (Sarah Dadey), a maid/student at the school, fall in love and get married. Jim really wants Sarah to learn to lip-read and talk. She stubbornly refuses.

Mark Medoff's script lets Jim and Sarah carry most of the action, and their scenes are filled with the things that any two people might go through - meeting, flirting, falling in love, facing life as a married couple.

That puts a huge weight on the acting skills of Pierce and Dadey, because Pierce has to do all the talking, while Dadey, although she signs, never utters a sound until the very end.

Pierce and Dadey give brilliant performances. It's hard to take your eyes off Dadey, because her smallest facial expressions carry a complex blend of Sarah's alert intelligence, well-earned cynicism and sometimes radiant hope and happiness.

The role of Jim is written as an unstoppable optimist who eases his way with patter and jokes, many of the deliberately bad. Like Sarah, though, he's covering up some tough memories.

Pierce's Jim is strong and believable, but as the role grows, it might be well if Pierce let a bit more of Jim's deep sorrows resonate.

The play was always a bit talky, and Medoff loaded it with rather more issues than were needed to create dramatic tension. But it tells a story that's still powerful and moving, laced with humor.

The moments of rage in the closing minutes seem like a culmination of all the frustrations felt by people who try to bridge two worlds. Medoff's script ends with hope, but it offers no easy consolations.

Tom Ciancaglini gives another of his spot-on performances, immersing himself in the character of Orrin, who makes it his mission in life to start a deaf-rights movement.

Natalie Galvin is delightful as Lydia, as young deaf girl who has a huge crush on Jim and thinks she should be his wife.

Doug Walls creates a strong character role as Franklin, the wryly witty, all-knowing head of the school for the deaf.

Pat Stone does good work in a small role as Sarah's mother, and Blair Dawson has a fine comic touch as lawyer who finds herself out of her depth when she tries to mediate in a world she doesn't understand.

The set is a splendid, flexible array of dark panels backing up a multi-leveled space that serves for all the settings.

In a play concerned so much with silence, the sound cues - Handel's music, oven buzzers, phones - get effective split-second timing, with Brain Smith on the sound board.

© 2004 The Post-Standard.