Fences (Maybe) Make Good Neighbors: The Realistic Joneses at the Harbor Stage Company

At the end of The Realistic Joneses, now playing at the Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet, I overheard one audience member say to another, “What was the point they were making?” And it was difficult to not laugh at the question—because this is Will Eno writing, a man who’s a lot less interested in coherence than he is in words—and for people who love language, this play is simply a delight.

Not that there isn’t a plot. Throughout the hour-and-a-half play, two couples interact in a number of ways and configurations, with tensions among them ebbing and flowing throughout. John (Jonathan Fielding) and Pony (Samantha Steinmetz) have just moved into the neighborhood where Bob (Robert Kropf) and Jennifer (Brenda Withers) have lived for some time; we don’t know it at the start, but the move was to be nearer a specialist in a rare degenerative neurological disease from which both Bob and John suffer, and which eventually affects language skills.

The part of Bob could have been written for Kropf: it highlights his particular strengths in portraying laconic, quirky, curious characters. Withers as his wife Jennifer is at the top of her game, too, a harried caretaker trying to be accommodating, putting a “normal” face on a situation that is far from normal, effectively whistling in the dark.

Fielding is almost too good to be true; he’s awkward to the point of being just a little scary, the guy you’d quietly move away from if you saw him in public. And Steimetz as Pony is a revelation, by turns dumb blonde, insightful sprite, and a woman really just trying to see where she fits in.

Don’t go to this play expecting it to follow the accepted storytelling rhythm of beginning, middle, and end; there aren’t any. These people could carry on with this all night. In fact, don’t go to this play expecting anything, and it will amaze you.

One aspect of Eno’s work that’s particularly delightful is the characters’ complete lack of social inhibitions: they all say what each of us wants to say, only we don’t. In the first scene, after the new neighbors drop in and stay… and stay… and stay, Bob turns to them. “You have to leave,” he says “so I can go to bed.” One could attribute this lack of social niceties to the disease from which the two men suffer, but no: Pony and—to a lesser degree—Jennifer both open their mouths before their thoughts are fully formed, as well, leading to raw and real reactions.

Eno has been criticized for writing what may feel on the surface like a series of non-sequiturs (“ice cream,” opines John, “is a dish best served cold”) that could easily be made into Internet memes, but the more you listen, the more you recognize both the universality and the depth of the characters’ observations and interactions. There is a thread connecting the beginning of the play to the end, but don’t worry if you lose it: you’re here for the ride.

This is a play that could be a dismal failure if not handled deftly, but Alison Greene directs it to perfection, drawing out the best from an absolutely stellar cast, delivering perfect timing and perfect technique. One can see how the play could feel claustrophobic and scattered; Harbor Stage instead creates a world of broken mirrors where many of us can see shards of ourselves.

The Realistic Joneses is a brilliant choice: it’s exactly the small, intimate, cerebral play at which the company excels, and this production is close to perfection. Take a little time out from the laziness of summer thought to challenge yourself, and even if by the end you’re not sure what it was “about,” this play will mesmerize you.

review by Jeannette de Beauvoir

images by Justin Lahue