The final production of the 2009 season at the Westport Country Playhouse is Sir David Hare’s The Breath of Life. Directed by artistic director Mark Lamos, the show stars Tony Award winners Jane Alexander and Stockard Channing as English women of a certain age who, over the course of one day and night, divulge, discuss, and dissect their relationship with the man who left them both for a younger woman. This seemingly simple story is emotionally complex and delves deeply into issues of how personal histories guide our choices and how we come to terms with those choices as we reflect upon our past and move forward.
Stockard Channing plays Frances Beale, the woman who was married to the unseen Martin. Although she has found success late in life as a popular novelist, she is still obsessed with the man who got away. Frances, as played by Ms. Channing, is stuck in a world of hurt and insecurity, seemingly always on the verge of tears, as she recalls the humiliation of living with a husband who admittedly kept a mistress and who now has moved to Seattle to settle with a new, younger partner. She toys with the idea of switching from writing popular fiction to writing the real story of her failed marriage. So she visits with Madeleine Palmer, her husband’s former mistress, played by Ms. Alexander, ostensibly to research the facts for the new book and to ultimately get closure on this sad chapter of her life.
Of the two women, Madeleine seems to have led the richer life. She first met Martin when she was a teenager, visiting and protesting in America during the 60’s. She left him there after a night of passion, only to run into him again years later in England. There she began her affair with him, continuing the relationship with the same free-spirited and independent attitude of her youth. After their affair was over, Madeleine claims to have moved on, living alone now on the Isle of Wight, and enjoying her career as a museum curator.
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