Dignity Players opened its sixth season with "The Shadow Box" by Michael Cristofer, who won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for his work dealing with the ultimate crisis — death.
Three characters face terminal illnesses as their families and friends deal with their own uncertainties in confronting their situations.
The three central characters accept that their lives are coming to an end, dealing with their own mortality more realistically than their loved ones seem capable of doing.
These terminally ill people have gone through the stages of dying described by psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her 1969 book "On Death and Dying": denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Kubler-Ross is quoted in the director's program notes, and these stages are followed by Cristofer in his play.
Dignity's production was directed by Darice Clewell, who imbues the work with a timeless dignity and lyrical humanity.
Not only does she acknowledge her "privilege to direct dramatic literature of such quality," but also her "equal privilege to direct a cast of this caliber." She also acknowledges the help given by Hospice of the Chesapeake workers in understanding the characters' plight.
Set designer Eric Lund divided the stage into three regions, representing three cottages on the hospital grounds. Each dying person and their loved ones occupied a section within defined parameters; sometimes the loved ones shift from one living space to another while the patients remained in place — indicating the struggles that unite the dying and their caregivers.
Each actor could have conducted a master class in conveying the strength and infinite capacity of the human spirit. Together, they took the audience on an uplifting journey that proved life-affirming as it dealt with the reality that we all must eventually face.
The terminal patients include Joe, a working man who has accepted his fate.
He is trying to help his wife, Maggie, come to terms with it, and have his teenage son, Steve, accept it.
Educator/writer Brian struggles with the harsh realities of his illness, helped by his partner, Mark, and by a surprise visit from his flashy ex-wife, Beverly.
Elderly, nearly blind and in a wheelchair, Felicity drifts in and out of reality, longing for her missing daughter, Claire, and asking her caregiver daughter, Agnes, for news of her.
In addition to these characters is an unseen interviewer, played with sensitivity by Frank B. Moorman, heard from the back of the theater. He is professionally adept at steering these terminal patients through their own analyses while occasionally aiding their caregivers.
Dan Kavanaugh gave a strong performance as calm, hard-working Joe, trying to help his heartbroken wife realize that he cannot recover. Joe's wife, Maggie, was played by Mary Koster, who conveyed her character's rigid state of denial, which at first prevents her from entering her husband's cottage. She gradually comes to accept Joe's reality with help from him and their son, Steve — whose instinctive understanding was well-conveyed by eighth-grader Cole Garcia.
Jim Reiter was well-cast as talkative writer Brian, who comes to grips with his illness through torrents of words, spoken and written. They help his partner Brian, strongly played by Eric Lund, and Brian's ex-wife Beverly, played by Margaret Allman, who explores her own life and belatedly appreciates Brian.
Janet Berry communicated Felicity's pain and desperation to cling to the hope of seeing her missing daughter, Claire. As Felicity's caregiver spinster daughter Agnes, Sue Struve expressed a confused, helpless need to please her mother by keeping her dream alive of having her beloved Claire return.