In songs, stories, and family videos, Loudon Wainwright III shines in 'Surviving Twin'
At times, it felt as though he were saying goodbye — but the old flash was still there.
Loudon Wainwright III lays bare family history in story, song, and home videos in Surviving Twin, an 80-minute one-man show under director Daniel Stern at People's Light. He calls his new show a "posthumous collaboration" with his father, Loudon Wainwright Jr., the longtime Life magazine essayist. Surviving spans four generations of Wainwrights. Though Loudon talks about other family — his widowed mother, son Rufus — he always returns to the father he never knew.
Loudon Wainwright III burst onto the folk-music scene in 1970, with work that implicitly rejected the political protest of the '60s in favor of wit and introspection. In "School Days," he laughed at his youthful, Holden Caulfield falsity:
You wicked wise men where you wonder
You Pharisees one day will pay
See my lightning, hear my thunder
I am truth. I know the way
In Delaware when I was younger.
Fifty more years of troubled family life led to the gathering conviction that our inner puerility trumps (sorry) our outer politics.
Loudon III virtually becomes Loudon Jr. when he reads his father's World War II-era letters to his mother. In "Disguised in a Suit," he acts out the engaging tale of his father buying a custom three-piece from a London clothier. Set designer James F. Pyne Jr. creates an eerie sense of place. Along with a center chair and a cascade of musical instruments, he teases you with a trunk and a closed barn door that hint at hidden family secrets. As Loudon sings while playing guitar, banjo, ukulele, and piano, his father's suit stands off to the side, suspended on a hanger like a ghost.
His songs — plaintive, witty, and sometimes foot-stomping — stand on their own. But they only marginally relate to the stories, offering but a glancing acquaintance with Wainwright's world of family relations. He hits a more uplifting note when he talks about his dog, John Henry, who, in contrast, feels things deeply and loves without qualification.
Maybe that is why we, too, need our family dog. Maybe that is why we need Loudon Wainwright III, as he sings, "If families didn't break apart / I suppose there'd be no need for art." Hey, Loudon, if you get the time, stop by Philly again.
Surviving Twin. Through Feb. 5 at People's Light, Steinbright Stage, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern. Tickets: $38. Information: 610-644-3500 or peopleslight.org.