arts&life
theater
Inside The
Psyche Of
Steven
Levenson
Steven Levenson
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
L
details
The Unavoidable Disappearance
of Tom Durnin runs March
15-April 9 at the Meadow Brook
Theatre on the campus of
Oakland University in Rochester.
$27-$42. (248) 377-3300;
mbtheatre.com.
42
March 9 • 2017
earning what happened to a girl he
knew in high school impacted the
work of playwright Steven Levenson.
The young woman had been remem-
bered as the daughter of a very successful
and wealthy corporate lawyer providing
a dream life for his family, but a devastat-
ing change in circumstances upended the
luxurious existence that had seemed so
enduring.
The father was serving a prison sentence
for securities fraud, and his daughter had
to grapple with the scandal and ensuing
financial hardship.
“It all happened in the time of the finan-
cial crisis, and I found the whole story
heartbreaking,” Levenson says. “There was
so much malfeasance then, but big players
kept their jobs and lifestyles while this man
jn
had gone to jail for several years. Those
things merged into a story.”
Levenson’s fictional story, The
Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin,
moves the issues into repercussions expe-
rienced after a man returns from prison.
It is being staged March 15-April 9 at the
Meadow Brook Theatre in Rochester,
where Travis Walter directs a cast that
includes Loren Bass as Tom and Lucas
Wells as his son, James Durnin.
The drama explores themes that recur
throughout the playwright’s work — the
challenge of enacting personal change and
the emotional effects of family relation-
ships.
The local production is being staged at
a time of great success for the 32-year-old
playwright. His musical Dear Evan Hansen
is getting Broadway acclaim, and his new
play, If I Forget, recently opened in New
York as his first work focused on Jewish
characters.
“It’s pretty remarkable to have a play on
Broadway at the same time as my playwrit-
ing teacher from Brown University, Paula
Vogel,” Levenson says. “I feel incredibly
gratified, lucky and in shock that all this is
happening. It’s been great.
“Paula Vogel, an incredible playwright
in her own right [ formerly with How
I Learned to Drive and currently with
Indecent], read my work during my senior
year and said she thought this was some-
thing I could do.”
The Meadow Brook production intro-
duces a father and son and ultimately a
family, broken and trying to put their world