GREENSBORO – To be able to take personal experiences and make them universal is a fundamental characteristic of great writing, and Rob Mermin has certainly shown that in his play, “Act 39.” Based on his close friendship with a neighbor suddenly confronted with a diagnosis of stage-four pancreatic cancer, the drama explores in depth the emotional journey for both of them when death becomes an imminent certainty within six months. The title refers to Vermont’s landmark legislation, enacted in 2013, which gives people who are terminally ill the option of medical aid in dying and end-of-life decision making.
“Act 39” was given four performances on August 29-31 and September 1 at the Highland Center for the Arts, and continued on tour at the Main Street Landing in Burlington on September 4-8, and then at Pentangle Arts in Woodstock on September 12-14. Co-sponsored by Patient Choices Vermont, it brings a timely discussion about death with dignity, making it possible for people to keep in control of their lives, which is psychologically very important as we age.
Rob Mermin and Bill Morancy lived in the same apartment building in Montpelier, on separate floors above each other, and came to enjoy such activities as playing catch with a baseball and generally acting spontaneously like kids, telling stories and having meaningful conversations about everything, always with lots of laughter.
The play begins, and ends, with Mermin blowing bubbles with pipes, creating beautiful iridescent globes that float gracefully through the air but then pop, a metaphor for human life. J.T. Turner has the role of Rob and Donny Osman portrays Morancy, and both were superb in conveying their unique personalities in an engaging and often moving way. Two other very accomplished actors Jeanine B. Frost and Mathew Grant Winston, take multiple secondary parts as, respectively, different nurses and Mistress Death, Samuel Morse, various doctors, Sigmund Freud and a pharmacist.
In the two acts and 14 scenes, their own life histories emerge. During the late 1960s and the 1970s Rob went to Europe to learn about traditional circus life, studying mime with Marcel Marceau in Paris and joining several traveling tent circuses as a clown. He founded Circus Smirkus in Greensboro in the mid 1980s to give young people a chance to develop their circus skills, which he has written about in three books, the latest, “Circle of Sawdust,” published this year. A tragic car accident nearly ended his life and caused the death of a young Danish woman with whom he was in love. He began to develop symptoms of Parkinson’s syndrome sometime afterwards. Bill’s lifetime fascination was with films and he started a movie theater on Martha’s Vineyard, an ideal life until he suffered the trauma of his wife leaving him.
Their well-written dialogue ranges widely about facing death and questions concerning some kind of afterlife. Morancy is a classic skeptic, honest in expressing his own fears about dying but doubtful that there is any sequel. Mermin, through entertaining magic tricks, tries to suggest that some things aren’t readily explainable, that the paranormal may exist, that as in our nightly dreams there might be other parallel realities separate from the everyday familiar. He talked about the two inexplicable visions he had at the time of his accident, which were crucial to his survival.
Morancy decides to follow the procedures of medically assisted dying as his pain becomes continuous and intolerable, asking Mermin to be his companion when he takes the necessary dosage. Mermin gets the pills from a pharmacy, but his own emotional turmoil increases dramatically and he feels very conflicted about whether he can go through with his friend’s request. The acting of both Turner and Osman is very powerful in these final scenes. Mermin’s last words to Morancy are, “See you down the road,” a touching farewell among circus folk. In an imaginary Epilogue, Morancy comes back and thanks Mermin for being such a good friend to help him through this transition, saying, “Nobody laughs the way we did.”
Rob Mermin himself was the director of “Act 39,” Heidi Lauren Duke the production stage manager, Johnnie Day Durand created the appropriate musical score and soundscape, Caran Meese did the abstract colored panels of the sets and the lighting design and Harry Chaikin was the sound technician.
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
