As the Horvath family celebrates the holidays, its members' conversations and thoughts are stuck on a tragic event from a decade before — the gruesome murder of the family's then−20−year−old daughter. While it is clear that the topic is ever−present, this holiday season, a new concern reawakens past grievances.
The convicted murderer is up for parole, and this becomes the catalyst that divides the family down the center. The audience watches as the family splits between those who want to forgive and those who want vengeance.
Peter DuBois directs Bob Glaudini's "Vengeance is the Lord's" for the Huntington Theatre Company in a dark, heart−wrenching and emotionally taunting performance. The pain that permeates every family encounter diffuses into the audience, evoking feelings of sympathy and anger toward almost all of the characters onstage.
Yet some mumbled and stuttered dialogue inhibits the power behind a few important conversational moments. When the performers attempt to keep secrets from each other, they sometimes succeed in keeping them from the audience as well. The result is a climax that is less profound and a narrative that is less comprehensible.
If the play fails to reach its full potential, it is certainly not because of its content. The play's themes address potent issues, exploring the inescapable repercussions of a single violent event. The most interesting aspects of the performance are its explorations of justice, truth and retribution.
The play questions these assumptions of right and wrong by juxtaposing clear moral dichotomies with more subtle ones. Though the victim's family at the Thanksgiving dinner table is clearly juxtaposed with the murderer in prison, there are less clearly defined binaries within the family structure itself. For example, the patriarch of the family, Matthew Horvath (Larry Pine), finds himself judged by his youngest son Donald (Karl Baker Olson) because of his desire for vengeance. Matthew, like his oldest son Woodrow (Lee Tergesen), does not believe in forgiveness for the man who murdered his daughter.
While the entire family uses religion to guide them in dealing with the loss of their greatly loved family member, it is clear that they interpret the Bible in vastly different ways. When Matthew surprises Donald by reading the Old Testament after Thanksgiving dinner, Matthew explains that he reads it for the parts where the characters find retribution against their enemies.
Donald's approach to the Bible is vastly different from his father's. This demonstrates how the family can have important and defining things in common, such as religion, yet still have starkly different approaches.
When Donald tells his father that he wants to study ethics and religion in college, it is a pointed remark that reveals a perceived shortcoming in his family. For Donald, although questions of religion and morality are ever−present in his family, he believes that these are empty debates and that morality itself is lacking.
It is clear that his relatives do not always appreciate Donald's moral fortitude. When he puts questions of morality above family, he is seen as ungrateful and naive. By the end of the play, the audience is forced to agree with his family members. Despite the morally depraved behavior of the rest of his family, Donald's persistent moral judgments seem obnoxious, thus contradicting conventional expectations of justice and character. There are no heroes in this drama — everyone is judged.
The surviving daughter, Roanne (Katie Kreisler), and the mother of the family, Margaret (Roberta Wallach), both put in strong performances. Roanne is the mediator for the family, much the same way that Kreisler's acting holds the performance together.
Roanne's interjections in the family's arguments, reactions to the persistently cold weather and futile attempts to quit smoking are charming portrayals of a character in a bitterly cold climate and a dark family situation.
In the end, the family's forced unity comes at the cost of its disintegration. This contradiction almost drives the performance into emotional obscurity.
The family's moment of mutual understanding unites them at precisely the moment when they realize that there exist permanent and irrevocable fractures among them. The contradictions between each family member's actions are a metaphor for the difficult and intertwined definitions of love and retribution that the play explores.
