Bay Street Theater's 'Dissonance' explores relationships, on stage and off

At first blush, it seems like a classic setup for a sitcom: A successful quartet of classical musicians prepares to play a concert at Carnegie Hall, the group’s first in New York City. The relationships between members of the group off the concert stage seem manageable and generally harmonious, but there is some tension.

Enter an attractive rock star named Jonny, who has undeniable appeal for the lone female member of the quartet, Beth. Their romantic duet ratchets up the tension in the classical ensemble, and hilarity ensues, right?

Not really, say director Lonny Price and actor Rosie Benton, who plays the cellist, Beth, in the New York premiere of Damian Lanigan’s “Dissonance,” in previews this week at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, in preparation for opening night on Saturday, June 5.

While both director and actor agreed that the play has humor, both see it as more of a drama than a comedy, an examination of relationships and the precarious footing afforded by a career in the arts.

Mr. Price and Ms. Benton worked together at Bay Street once before, in 2007, when he directed and she acted in “The Night Season” by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, a study of a family in Ireland that they both described as another relationship play.

Interviewed during a lunch break at Bay Street last week, the director said that the tension among members of the celebrated quartet prior to the entrance of the rocker stems from the group—despite touring all over the globe and releasing some 15 albums—being prevented from playing in New York for many years because of a mysterious incident in the past involving the first violinist and leader of the ensemble, James, played in Sag Harbor by Bay Street regular Daniel Gerroll. Mr. Gerroll was most recently seen on the Bay Street stage playing opposite Mercedes Ruehl in last season’s black comedy, “Dinner.”

While Beth’s attraction to the rocker heightens the existing tension, Mr. Price said that Jonny is not a catalyst. “‘Dissonance’ deals with people who work very closely together for a long time, and a man, James, trying to cope

for a long time with ...”—he paused, in search of the right word—“his disappointment.”

After he was asked to take the helm of the show by the artistic directors at Bay Street, Mr. Price said that he connected to the material on his first reading of the script. “I love the language and I love the relationships,” the director said.

Noting that he is a former actor himself—“I used to say I’m an actor in recovery”—he described the dynamic of a quartet as “not unlike a company of actors who come together to do a play. The neuroses are not dissimilar in those who get out in front of a lot of people and reveal 
themselves,” he said. “I could relate.”

Mr. Price, who directed the 2007 New York revival of “110 in the Shade” starring Audra McDonald, also liked some of the challenges posed by the piece. “The play doesn’t have a tremendous amount of action, and it has very wonderful dialogue,” he said. “The question was, how can I make this active? How can I motivate movement? A quartet could just sit and talk about the music. But the subtext in the relationships is ...”

“Wildly rich,” Ms. Benton offered.

“Wildly rich,” the director agreed, “and that subtext motivates the movement.”

Having joined the interview at that point, Ms. Benton said that any qualms she felt at the start of the rehearsal process about how the movement would work were quickly put to rest when the actors discovered that the relationships and the movement are completely complementary. The relationships between the characters dictate to some extent how they move, and the way the characters move makes clearer what the relationships are and brings the rich subtext to the fore. The language and the relationships, she and Mr. Price agreed, provide the map for the movement and the action.

Ms. Benton added that the physicality of working with the instruments was another helpful tool. “They have to be treated with great respect, but at the same time casually,” she said, since the musicians have been working with them all their lives.

“The cast has been so diligent about learning about the instruments,” Mr. Price said, “taking lessons, spending time practicing holding them when not at rehearsal. I would have asked them to, but they did it on their own. It shows great dedication to wanting to do honor to the musicians, and it’s really very moving that they have been working so hard on it.”

“It’s also fun to do a role as an expert,” Ms. Benton said with a laugh. “As actors, we can’t say that we’re ‘experts,’ so it’s great when you get to play a doctor or cellist, because it’s very specific, and you work hard to become an expert.”

Returning to the themes of relationships and self-examination, Ms. Benton and Mr. Price suggested that there are different elements of the script that add texture as the action builds to a crescendo and final dénouement. For example, the relationship between the cellist and the rocker, played by Gregory Wooddell, can’t help but have ramifications for both the cellist and the second violinist, Hal, played by Morgan Spector, a former student of James and a former lover of Beth. And while Beth’s encounter with the rocker might not be the catalyst, Ms. Benton said, it brings to light certain fissures in the group.

There are internal forces at work in each individual that also contribute to the “intensity of the dynamics,” she said, and cross-generational issues between the old guard, represented by James and the violist, Paul, played by Robert Stanton, and the younger characters, Beth, Hal and Jonny.

James, she said, is hampered by his “inability to bend and sway with the time ... rigidity.”

Mr. Price picked up the thread. “James is assessing where he is in his life, looking at his life and career and the cost of it,” he 
said, “The cost of being an artist.” Hanging in the balance is the question of whether or not the group he leads can continue.

The relationships being considered go beyond the interpersonal, Ms. Benton said. “In everything we do artistically—painting, making music, acting, writing—sometimes you get so caught up in the doing and the judging, you forget that in the end it’s about connecting people together. Connecting audiences with the material and to each other in the community of being human, connecting artists with one another and with audiences.

“Relationship plays,” she concluded, “are the best plays to be in.”

Contacted after the interview, Bay Street Artistic Director Murphy Davis put it another way: “It’s funny, romantic, heartbreaking. It’s got everything.”

“Dissonance” by Damian Lanigan opens this week at Bay Street Theatre on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor and runs through June 27. Tickets are $55 and $65, available online at baystreet.org, by calling 725-9500, or at the theater box office from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.