'Miracle Worker' Shines At Bay Street

There are many moving moments in serious American theater but few descend so directly to the heart and produce such a combination of joy, fulfillment and tearful relief than the closing moments of “The Miracle Worker,” William Gibson’s incandescently realized dramatization of the fractiously glorious relationship between Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller, and its miraculous and world-shaking conclusion.

Revisiting this landmark play, even in a 90-minute condensation, is a shattering experience, particularly if it’s played well. And in the present “Literature Live!” production at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre—adapted and directed by Murphy Davis and featuring an abbreviated professional Equity cast that contains one transfixing performance—a whole generation of local students are being introduced to theater at its most powerful and persuasive. Bay Street’s project of bringing to dramatic life the works being read by high school students is both admirable and effective.

The battle royal between teacher Annie Sullivan and blind and deaf student Helen Keller has never been told with more personal involvement and sweet balance between humor and tension than in Gibson’s rightfully award-winning drama. As much about the education of its adults as its central child, the play creates a movable mirror that simultaneously reveals the steady discovery of the interior lives of its teacher and student and the exterior movement of their lessons.

And here is where the necessary—because of school scheduling—condensation presents some problems. The progression toward success in Annie Sullivan’s leading of Helen Keller out of the absolute darkness of blindness and deafness happens a little too rapidly for comfort, though audiences used to instant gratification can probably adjust to it.

But the largest casualty of compression is the character of Annie Sullivan. Her own continuing education has to be dimmed in this version. In the well-done hands and sensitivity of actress Kate Gerson, she emerges as a strong, somewhat hard-edged, if devoted, miracle worker.

The sensitivity and frustration and self discovery are there in this version, but more talked about than shown. Still, Ms. Gerson’s portrayal is a strong and valid one, and she forms a ringing role in a solid, if compacted cast.

Beryl Bernay’s character of Aunt Ev, the Southern grand dame aunt of the Keller family is given very little to do, but Ms. Bernay makes the most of it.

Peter Connolly assumes multiple personae, the most important one that of James, Helen Keller’s stepbrother by her father’s previous marriage. He’s sympathetic and convincing in his battle for identity with his overbearing and volatile father.

As Captain Keller, Helen’s newspaper editor father and the ruling royalty of this late 19th century Southern family, Ken Forman, after a rather stilted beginning, lines out, with gentle skill, the multiple layers in the man that come through only toward the end of the drama. The same path is taken by Jacqueline Murphy as Kate Keller, Helen’s mother. She begins as a stiffly-done stock Southern mother, but concludes the evening with compensatory depth.

The glowing star of the evening is 11-year-old Hampton Bays actress Lily Spellman. From her first to last instants on stage, Ms. Spellman

is

Helen Keller, to her very depths and heights. There’s not a flicker of a false movement on her face or her sometimes tentative, sometimes flailing body movements, nor is there a millisecond of lost concentration.

And the final, momentous moment of the play is handled with more insight and real manifestation than any portrayal this critic has witnessed on any stage or screen. It’s a stunning and absolutely true performance.

Murphy Davis has moved his production well and energetically around Gary Hygom’s masterfully minimal and evocative set, moodily and wisely lit by Mike Billings. This “Miracle Worker” is a satisfying, well wrought, quick look at a classic American play. It provides a fine introduction to students and a stimulating reacquaintance for adult audiences.

The Bay Street Theatre production of “The Miracle Worker” is open to all audiences. Daytime performances will be held through Friday, November 19. Evening performances will be held on Friday, November 19, and Saturday, November 20, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 for children and $15 for adults. For reservations, call 725-9500 or visit baystreet.org.