An anomaly like the glen? Maybe, but so is everyone else.

So I finally made it out to the Salt Lake Acting Company (a whopping four blocks away from my house) to see Ice Glen. Though I don’t usually spend this much on a performance-related activity (date or not), the show was well worth the $26.

The story begins as nothing special. A crazy, an over-smiley, widowed owner, a jaded but fiercely loving gardener/poet, a calm, reasonable butler, and an Irish cook with a sarcastic streak inhabit a quaint, run-down estate. Enter Mr. Woodburn, the emotionally sealed, well-to-do editor of The Atlantic Monthly. In shear serendipity, he has discovered the poetry of Sarah Harding and has come to the estate to buy the rights to the three poems that have come into his possession. Harding vehemently declares her poetry is not for the public eye while Woodburn shows unusually powerful resistance to her decline. Drama ensues.

The plot centers on the dynamic between Harding and Woodburn. It moves slowly until a love triangle develops between them and the owner, Dolce Bainbridge, whose character bares resemblance to the main figure of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Each of the three have their own story and their own set of issues.

The audience finds Woodburn is in a state of peril. Years ago, he gave up when he lost his wife and daughter. Suddenly, a stranger's poem causes him to feel again (I will note that this aspect of the play felt a bit contrived). He is all but overwhelmed, yet the harder he tries to show Harding how much her poetry means to him and how remarkable he finds her, the more enraged she becomes.

Bainbridge’s lot is a tragic one. Never able to win the adoration/respect her late husband and now Woodburn seemed to bestow upon Harding without hesitation, she realizes she must let go and move on. Constantly written off as an accessory, “the wife of an important man,” she knows people have little regard for her intelligence. Pointing out her “apparent” lack of understanding and eloquence while showing no protest to the notion, she rebukes Woodburn for his insensitivities as "perfectly reflected in his over-use of subjunctive phrases." (This scene was my favorite part of the whole play.) Bainbridge is obviously not the simpleton so many assumed her to be.

Harding unregretfully laments not being “the good wife” to the husband from whom she separated. “Words are everything. They hold too much value to be sold at any price.” The audience eventually learns that her opinions are as much a shield as they are an ideal, and ultimately, Harding is afraid.

Fortunately, this play does not dwell on the clichéd theme of “overcoming problems.” (i.e. "My life is so bad. How will I EVER find a way to make it all better?") Instead, it focuses on living, for better and for worse. You can struggle in life and still find happiness – what a novel concept.