by Harry Duke

Two men are conversing while one of them fishes off of a Chesapeake Bay dock. The fisherman regales the stranger with tales of fishing with his son. The stranger seems somewhat confused by the conversation. A woman soon approaches. As they converse, we learn they’re not strangers at all. They’re a family. So begins Bruce Graham’s The Outgoing Tide, now running at the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center through February 1. 

Gunner Concannon (Steven David Martin) has been enjoying his retirement with Peg (Elizabeth Henry), his wife of 50 years, but all is not well. He’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s (or dementia, it’s never clearly stated) and becoming increasingly more challenging to live with. Peg is at her wit’s end, and has begun exploring “care” options, much to Gunner’s frustration. 

Peg has enlisted their son Jack (Jonathan Graham) to help convince Gunner to move into the facility, but Gunner will have none of it. He sees it for what it is – a “damn warehouse with a swimmin’ pool.”  Gunner has his own plans for his and his family’s future that involves an insurance policy and a late night solo boat ride on the bay. Will his family agree to it? 

Graham’s dramatization is a sort of an updated Whose Life is it Anyway? for an aging population. The protagonist in Whose was a young artist whose paralysis causes him to see no future. Tide’s protagonist is an old man who is losing grip on the present and detests what he sees as his future. Both question whether life is worth living. That question – and the answer Graham seems to provide – may be the source of great debate among its audience. 

Lest you think the show is nothing but a troubling look at a family in crisis, Graham has injected plenty of humor into his script, dark though it may be. He takes multiple shots at the medical establishment, the Catholic church, and the condition itself.  

Director Amy Lovato has a solid cast telling the tale. Martin as the gruff patriarch, Henry as the exhausted matriarch, and Graham (no relation to the playwright) as the browbeaten son with family issues of his own are well-balanced with their characters and each other. 

Jennifer and Levi Clark’s uncomplicated but interestingly detailed multi-level scenic design works as the show shifts from indoors to outdoors with minimal disruption. Senya Stein’s lighting design supports the shifts in time as flashbacks are a major component of this piece. 

I hate to use the cliché “thought provoking” but an examination of the opening night audience as they departed made clear their minds were whirring. The play may have hit a bit close to home.

It’s always great to see a local company put up something other than the tried-and-true, especially when it’s well done. The Outgoing Tide may be a tough watch for some, but rewards are to be had for an audience that makes the effort.  

‘The Outgoing Tide’ runs through February 1 at the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center, 209 N. Cloverdale Blvd., Cloverdale. Fri–Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. $20–$25. 707.894.2214 cloverdaleperformingarts.com

Photos by Robert Zelenka

This review originally appeared in an edited version in the The Healdsburg Tribune.