On Summer Reading: The Mercy Seat

Neil LaBute has, for a some time now, been my favourite contemporary playwright. I have not read him exhaustively, by any means, but what I have read, I have always liked. That may perhaps be because I have a similar approach to subject matter with treatment of a theme from different sides displayed through dialogue and action. That is, at least, what I try to do. LaBute generally succeeds. The Mercy Seat is his exploration of new beginnings...of a sort.

The main plot involves a couple in an apartment the day after the World Trade Center towers have been destroyed. There is a ringing phone. I have to imagine a lot of this, of course, because it is a play and meant to be seen, not read, but the image is incredibly chilling in my mind. Abby and Ben are deliberating over what to do in the wake of the attacks. It is revealed that the two of them are co-workers (actually Abby is Ben's superior) having an affair behind the back of Ben's wife. Ben's work takes him to the World Trade Center, and he was to have been in it when the towers fell; however, a spontaneous rendezvous with Abby saved his life.

The ringing phone is presumably Ben's family hoping to find that he is alive. Ben is trying to decide whether to contact them or to let them think he is dead so he and Abby can run away together. Abby berates him for his insensitivity and his indecisiveness together. They argue throughout the play in fact, leading one to wonder why these two would ever want to actually live together anyway. Still, there are tender moments as well. LaBute is a master at capturing the nuances of conversation and relationship.

I dare not give away the final twist of the play, but it took me by surprise. I pride myself on being able to follow the the logic of a plot and predict events, but the turn of this story completely defied all my expectations. It was a brilliant move, and it gives the conclusion a brutal resonance. I had some contradictory feelings when I closed the book. There were both disappointment disgust for the characters. There was a feeling that events should not have happened as they did, that they didn't have to, that the characters could have taken a course other than the one they chose, but it also left a strange satisfaction. It was the right ending, perhaps the true ending.