Photo By Sandy Underwood

CEA Hall of Famer Dale Hodges plays Alice, a fragile poet whose husband abandons her, in The Retreat from Moscow.

William Nicholson's The Retreat from Moscow, is drawn from his own experience -- a failed romance and his parents' divorce. The British play, much produced around the United States this season and currently onstage at the Cincinnati Playhouse, has an atmosphere of grinding reality. Depending on how you feel about spending your entertainment dollars, you might like or hate the show.

Perhaps you'll say life is grim enough without spending more than two hours dwelling on the end of a marriage that never quite worked. Edward (Jack Wetherall), an introverted husband who seems to do nothing but annoy his brittle wife, poet Alice (Dale Hodges), explains how they met when he inadvertently took an express train that did not stop at his station.

"It was a mistake," he observes. "I got on the wrong train." After 33 years, Edward decides it's time to get off that train.

His introversion and indecision has left Alice totally unprepared for such a move. She has badgered him to be more present; her criticism has driven him into his crosswords and academic escapes. He's especially drawn to accounts of Napoleon's tragic "retreat from Moscow" in 1812, when thousands of loyal soldiers died from exposure and were left behind. When "by accident" Edward sees the opportunity for an easier relationship, it's the modest catalyst he needs to walk away.

Although he and his son, Jamie (Jeremiah Wiggins), have not been close, Edward relies on the young man to support his devastated mother. Despite her carping, Alice has never anticipated being left behind. Jamie's own issues about failed relationships are compounded by his parent's split. He too has been abandoned by a love, and like his mother, he doesn't comprehend why.

A second potential reaction to this painful story might be to revel in the complexly defined and portrayed interplay of character and emotion. Each character is an intriguing study, and the triangulation of the three is fascinating. Jamie is trapped as the intermediary between his demanding, dogmatic mother and his recalcitrant, reserved father; he loves them both and cannot reconcile their differences. That casts doubt on his own future.

The Retreat from Moscow is painful to watch, but these three fine actors and Nicholson's beautifully crafted dialogue make it constantly engaging, as powerful as you're likely to see onstage locally this season. Director Ed Stern draws upon Hodges' ability for dry understatement to make Alice a character whose desperation still has its amusing moments. Wetherall's Edward is sympathetic but harder to engage, because his feelings are so deeply buried. Yet in several difficult, explosive moments, we sense the pain he feels. And as Jamie, Wiggins must walk the emotional tightrope between the other two. It's a tough balancing act that Wiggins negotiates more often by remaining blank. I would have preferred a tad more reaction but -- like Edward -- it might be that Jamie is not able to muster such intensity.

The play's buried emotions are underscored beautifully by Paul Shortt's simple scenic design: A carpeted platform has three group of nondescript, neutral-toned furniture -- an easy chair and side table; a kitchen table with a nearby counter; a modest side chair with a footstool. The rear wall is translucent and mottled, capable of accepting a projection (the hint of wallpaper or trees) and light shines through it, sometimes progressing from left to right like passing clouds, perhaps suggesting the passage of time. With Thomas C. Hase's lighting design -- which also makes for beautifully fluid transitions from scene to scene, simply by supple changes of illumination -- the play moves forward with a visual underscoring that's perceived without being overtly noticed.

Nicholson punctuates his script with poetry that Alice cites: This device can be a bit too intellectual, but these charged moments are add texture and, in a way, hope, to the play's grim understatement. Grade: B+