Dorothy’s Dictionary, Oregon playwright E.M. Lewis’s tender-hearted nugget of a play directed by Ted Rooney at 21ten Theatre, is part inspirational tale, part hopeful balm – especially for those who are feeling sick about the state of the world.
The premise of the 60-minute production, which is making its West Coast Premiere, feels as familiar as a beloved book. After committing an act of violence, Zan, an angry and lonely 14-year-old (AC Campbell), is sentenced to do community service by reading to Dorothy (Kerie Darner), an ailing librarian in a convalescent home. It’s no surprise that these two seemingly disparate characters become friends, but watching their journey towards each other is a genuinely moving experience that’s aglow with humor along the way.
Rooney’s brilliant casting plays a big part in the show’s success. While the earnest, straightforward story, which unfolds in chapters rather than scenes, eschews the enthralling experimental vibe of 21ten’s production of A Number last winter, Campbell’s transformation of themself into an unhappy teen here is just as thrilling.
Wearing layered baggy shirts and faded jeans, Campbell suggests Zan’s emotional state with a slouching posture and lips pressed tight together. Besides refusing to smile, Zan won’t speak of the act that landed him in trouble, in spite of Dorothy’s obvious willingness to hear his story. When he slumps in a chair or enters Dorothy’s room at the convalescent home and dumps his backpack on the floor, Campbell reveals not just anger, but the absolute vulnerability and innocence of a child who has been emotionally neglected at home.
Darner’s Dorothy is also a beautifully nuanced character. While she clings to old-fashioned formalities such as insisting that Zan address her as “Mrs. Ross” and carps about kids and technology, she’s broadminded and irreverent enough to get the joke when Zan quips that Dorothy wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for machines. Later, as the two characters become closer, the story could have easily sunk into a swamp of sentimentality. But the reserved Dorothy briefly touches Zan’s hair with just the right note of hesitation, reminding us that her character is an individual and not some archetypal dying woman in a ham-handed tearjerker.
In a recent interview with ArtsWatch, Lewis said she appreciates 21ten’s intimate space, which is one of those small theaters that allows her to feel like she can “reach out and touch the story.” Sitting just feet away from Dorothy’s room, the audience can well imagine what Zan calls the smell of “bleach and sick people.” Also in the room, though, are neat stacks of books everywhere – on the floor, a table, and the bed.
Even while seriously ill and facing the unknown, Dorothy remains true to her curious mind as well as her desire for tidiness. The set – which was largely designed by Rooney, with help from 21ten’s producer team and Ryann St. Julien’s props – includes another marvelous note: a small round rug the color of golden wheat near Dorothy’s bed. I won’t give it away, but it’s here that something simple yet spellbinding happens, and when it does, Zan and Dorothy face the audience, as if to welcome us into their circle of wonderment.
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As significant as these visuals are, language is key to a play that’s a paean to the positive power of books and words and libraries. It’s only after Zan reads Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech aloud, for example, that he can begin to articulate his feelings about his mother’s death.
Lewis doesn’t get carried away by her own love of words, though. She also understands the power of holding them back at times. Zan tells the audience that he got in trouble because he hit another student 17 times, but when he finally gets the courage to tell Dorothy about the incident, he can’t bring himself to say the name the other kid called him before he went ballistic. Similarly, we never learn the name of Dorothy’s illness. Other details are more important, like the fact that some of her books are on a table by a window, creating a nice metaphor for how reading becomes a gateway to Zan’s emotional growth.
Dorothy’s Dictionary is part of 21ten’s BareBones program, and Rooney hopes to tour the play, which won the 2022 Portland Civic Theater Guild New Play Award, to libraries, schools, correctional facilities, and retirement communities throughout Oregon. I hope they do, too. Although Dorothy has nothing as clunky as a moral, its optimism implies we all have the power to make a difference in other people’s lives … an idea that’s worth taking on the road.
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Dorothy’s Dictionary is onstage through November 24 at 21ten Theatre. Tickets: www.21ten.org.
A nominee for six Pushcart awards, Linda Ferguson writes poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews. Her latest chapbook, "Not Me: Poems About Other Women," was published by Finishing Line Press. As a creative writing teacher, she has a passion for building community and helping students explore new territory.
