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Going to the theater is a unique experience. The viewer must always be aware of what happens on stage and have great suspension of disbelief, since most of the time the imagination should help us understand what happens in the story, as there are limits on what can be done in the theater.
A play like The Height of the Storm, therefore, leads us to the believe that it will be more accessible and will require less guessing, since it is the story of a couple reflecting on their 50 years of marriage. Or at least it was the impression the synopsis gave.
In reality, however, the play is much more mysterious and leaves the audience trying to guess what is actually going on. We meet André (Jonathan Pryce) looking out the window and contemplating about the storm from the previous day. One of his daughters arrives and starts talking to him about what they are going to do with the house now. It, therefore, implies that André’s wife has recently passed away. However, she appears minutes later with a shopping bag and begins preparing lunch. From then on, Madeleine (Eileen Atkins) is the one who talks to her daughter, implying that André died.
The next 80 minutes don’t clarify exactly what happened, but we get to see a little bit of that family’s history, including the dynamics between the two daughters and a possible secret in André’s life. Only at the end do we get a possible conclusion.
If, on one hand, the story is dense and requires a lot of attention, on the other hand there is no need to think long and hard to note that the performance of the cast is excellent. Jonathan Pryce is incredibly convincing as someone suffering deeply and with signs of senility. Eileen Atkins also shines as the devoted wife to her husband and reflective on how he would survive without her.
It is a privilege to be able to see these two actors performing live and, on top of that, to leave the theater thinking about life, family, loss of loved ones, and the inevitability of it all.
Written by Florian Zeller, it closes in New York on November 24, 2019.
Official website: https://heightofthestorm.com/
