Before we delve into the play that is Vanguard Milwaukee’s season opener, I recommend that you arrive early. There is a prologue that starts about 10 minutes before curtain. It is a silent dance or pantomime, if you will, performed by the two cast members…and they will experience all of the human emotions here, silently, that they will experience in the action during the play. It won’t make much sense as it is happening, but you will be glad that you were there!
For me, the thematic quote from the play: “I don’t know if I want a big laugh, or a big cry?” [I am disclaiming this as a paraphrase since my mind isn’t that sharp anymore]
Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs is a deep dive drama into couple relationship…not just at one point in time but in times. Lungs is a fairly recent play, originally staged in 2011, so it will speak to any of us who have had a special other in our lives. It is dynamic and hyperactive and very very intense at times. Macmillan also wrote Every Brilliant Thing which, I hope, many of you were able to see at the Milwaukee Rep or the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.
Lungs only has two characters. A couple. A man and a woman. If you look up Lungs on line you will see that Macmillan names them simply M and W. Vanguard only lists the two actors on their hand-card playbill, which works just fine. Being such an intimate couple and being exposed in intimate situations that we shouldn’t actually be privy to, they don’t refer to each other by name.
So, our actors are George Lorimer and Caroline Hansen. They are tasked with very challenging roles here, only interacting with each other, and never ever leaving the stage for the 75 or so minutes of the play. But Lorimer and Hansen have clearly put in the work and have the that certain stage chemistry that lets us accept that they are the intimate and loving couple that they are portraying on set. And director Matt Daniels (Scrooge in the Milwaukee Rep’s Christmas Carol) has added to their task with a simple but elaborate choreography (reminiscent of movements in the prologue) that helps tell their story as they experience love and tenderness, fear and anxiety, and a bit of anger from time to time. So as the story is told through complex conversation, Lorimer and Hansen also have to dance around the stage and each other to clearly convey the feelings of the moment. And they are at the Goodman Mainstage in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. This is a very intimate theater in the round venue and plays perfectly into the story and Daniels vision.
So as I said, Hansen and Lorimer get no respite from being the focus of attention. Daniels has them constantly in motion and Macmillan has them constantly in conversation. And it is intense and they perform flawlessly. But at one point Hansen is almost on a breathless stream of consciousness freak out rant and Lorimer finally has to tell her to take a breath. And the initial point is a particular stress point that catches Hansen and the audience by surprise and the reaction repercussions catch Lorimer and the audience by surprise and a great deal of loss of personal focus results. How Hansen and Lorimer can turn on a dime from one event and relevant mood to another without obvious scene breaks is simply amazing. But it all works here.
And every situation resolves, just as it does in real life, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better…but we do have situations for all time…and the final resolution is a good note, while sadly true.
Vanguard Milwaukee is a young and vibrant theater group that is relatively new, only being founded in 2022. But it gives us proof that Milwaukee is a vibrant theater town and it insures that we have talented young actors training for the future. This was my first experience with Vanguard but I am looking forward to the rest of their season!
Lungs runs from now through September 28, 2025 at the Goodman Mainstage Hall at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. LUNGS runs approximately one hour and fifteen minutes with no intermission.
