TERMINAL, was produced at the Rhino Theatre in New Jersey as part of their 4th Annual One-Act Jamboree Festival, and was a semi-finalist for the 10th Annual One-Act play contest First Stages, Hollywood. It was subsequently produced at Manhattan Repertory theatre.

A futuristic drama containing warnings to society.

TERMINAL: Beyond the Red Door

A review by Constance G.J. Wagner 

When a society is marred by violence, its citizens are driven to seek a solution, a means to an end. Terminal by Rita Lewis takes us to the dark heart of just such a society where lines are drawn to make things neat, simple – and resolved. Violent offenders are given what seems on a legislative level to be a humane resolution.  A series of psychiatric interviews determines if such offenders are worthy of reintegration into society. Those who fail to meet the state’s expectations are not executed but instead condemned to a kind of coma until the body shuts down on its own. 

This society takes pride in that it ostensibly has no death penalty. Their offenders are given every opportunity to show remorse before they are condemned to go through the red door where a type of living death awaits them. In this antiseptic, self-righteous society, the illusion of compassion is sufficient. 

We are introduced to the official black and white thinking of this society in the person of psychiatrist Dr. Meredith Lawson, chillingly portrayed by Florence Pape. It is she who embodies the ethos of this society that takes pride in what is seen as fair treatment in a timely fashion. She is direct and matter of fact with the “clients” she is presented with through the program that employs her. There is a knife-like precision in the conversation she has with John, a serial killer, who sees it as his divine mission to send innocent girls back to God before their purity is sullied. 

The dialogue between Dr. Lawson and her very disturbed client begins to expose just how this society works, much to the horror of John, here presented with an interesting mix of innocence and warped morality by Dave Silberger. He will not die by the hands of society. Only his higher brain functions will be shut down and actual dying is something his body will eventually accomplish on its own. This sentence is explained to him in a perfunctory fashion by Pape, whose delivery shows hints of the subtle frustration of the culture with offenders who don’t understand the mercy supposedly embodied in this method.  Silberger also delivers an excellent portrayal of a man who tries to justify his actions while attempting to squelch his own rising panic.  

There is, however, never any question as to who will come out on top in their sparring. Pape’s Lawson has seen all this before, and her calculated clinical approach is unnerving to behold, particularly since it seems to be so perfectly aligned with the culture’s expectations: Five sessions. No remorse yet? You’re done. A violent offender is off the streets and the state saves money that would previously have been spent housing and feeding yet another incorrigible prisoner. This is more humane than an outright execution. Yes, Dr. Lawson does believe that. 

But then comes her next client, Cheryl Reed (Chelsea Clark), a woman convicted of stalking and killing the man who beat and raped her and threatened her child with the same fate. The conversation in session here reveals there are no shades of grey in this society. The rapist is a victim of violence – and that is all that matters. Would Cheryl kill her attacker again if she had the chance? Doesn’t she see that she is the violent offender now?  Clark gives us a desperate woman who is struggling not just to save her own life but her psyche and the well-being of her daughter and ailing mother as well. She is ably partnered with Pape in the gripping debate of ethics versus morals that playwright Rita Lewis here presents. 

The sharp and compelling dialogue forces the audience to consider what is right versus what is convenient. The question of what is correct for a society is on shaky ground here, and director Ken Wolf’s tight pacing makes the sparring fly by. The overall feeling is of claustrophobia – not so much for the offenders incarcerated but for the society that is trapped by its own black and white thinking about right and wrong.  

Terminal, presented by Manhattan Repertory Theatre, gives us a world of sharp contrasts of thought that still reveal the shadows of the soul. 

************ 

Thanks also to Jonathan Brantley for his contributions to the discussion about Terminal. 

************ 

 --- submitted by Constance G.J. Wagner, Writing Program Director, Saint Peter’s University (The Jesuit University of New Jersey)

Dave Silberger and Florence Pape

Chelsea Clark and Florence Pape