The Sunset Limited: the challenge of giving others hope

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

The Sunset Limited, a two-man play by Cormac McCarthy, opened on Rosebud’s BMO Studio Stage, July 8. Morris Ertman is director.
Two men, named Black and White, are locked together in a run-down apartment in Chicago. Black has just rescued White from jumping in front of a train called The Sunset Limited. Black has now locked White into his own apartment and is trying to save more than his life. He wants to save this man’s soul.
Nathan Schmidt, a Rosebud resident actor, plays White, an agitated professor who is drawn and driven by darkness. For him, the darkest perspective is always the truest one. Inside Black’s apartment on the day of our story, White has nowhere to go but is desperate to get away.
Carl Kennedy, an American actor who’s new to Rosebud, plays Black. He’s lived out the worst that life has to offer, and has afflicted plenty of misery on other people. But now he carries only hope. Yes, hope, and a determination to pass it on. Kennedy’s portrayal of Black is determined but endearing, single-minded and deep. Even during White’s longer monologues, Kennedy stays fully engaged as a listener. His openness and compassion, made all the more convincing by his authentic accent, drew me in.
Black and White are so fascinating and lifelike that I realized, days after I saw the play, that I want to get to know both of these characters better.
For this show, the BMO Studio Stage has been arranged with two facing sections of seating, so we could see each other’s responses. The set is small and its elements are concrete: Black takes food from the fridge and heats it on the stove, and he makes coffee. We smell the aroma as he and White eat and drink together. All of that heightens my sense that this story and these men are real, that somewhere in this world, not far away, living people are experiencing this reality.
I’d prepared myself for The Sunset Limited to be dark, perhaps even depressing, but it is not. It is certainly thought-provoking, but it’s also light and funny, bright and tender.
The ending of the story isn’t what I’d hoped for, but I found it satisfying. What is satisfying is not the way the events evolve, but what I see in Black’s heart – his determination to keep doing what is impossible, for the sake of continuing to give hope and love to those who need it most.
The show presents no easy solutions to humanity’s problems, but it reminds me we’re all on a path toward growth. It reminds me that, no matter how bleak our path is, we can always choose hope. And its deepest impression on me was my renewed awareness of the courage and determination it takes to give that hope to others.
Sunset Limited runs Wednesday to Saturday on Rosebud’s BMO Studio Stage until Aug. 27. The ticket is show-only, but Wild Horse Jack’s restaurant and Thorny Rose Cafe are open. For tickets and more information, see rosebudtheatre.com or call 1-800-267-7553.