THE RAZOR’S EDGE
Maugham paints Larry’s portrait against a flat backdrop of petty, materialistic characters, foils apparently based on individuals the novelist actually encountered in Chicago after World War I. Isabel Bradley is Larry’s spoiled, petulant fiancee, who sees happiness in terms of golf outings, horseback rides, and bellies full of children. Gray Maturin, Isabel’s millionaire suitor, has about as much personality as his unfortunate first name would indicate. Elliott Templeton, Isabel’s snobbish uncle, an American like Henry James obsessed with becoming European, disapproves of Larry. Sophie MacDonald is a tragic and vulnerable young woman who turns to drink. And then there’s the meddlesome Maugham himself, who is both the narrator and a character in the novel.
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Maugham’s book tracks the course of these and other characters. Larry, dissatisfied with what America has to offer him after he returns from World War I, goes off to France and then to India. Isabel, unwilling to live on the small amount of money Larry has saved up, marries Gray Maturin instead, and he’s ruined by the crash of ’29. Sophie MacDonald becomes a woman of easy virtue in France. Larry pops in and out of all these characters’ lives, offering them strength and a chance for salvation.
The arguments are presented in such blatant black-and-white terms that they become ridiculous. “What is this going to lead to?” Isabel asks. “The acquisition of knowledge,” Larry responds ponderously. “It doesn’t sound very practical,” she says. Isabel also asks, “What do you expect to find?” Says Larry: “The answers to my questions.” True, the dialogue is taken straight from Maugham’s novel, but whether the words are Maugham’s or Dunne’s, they still go clunk when they come out of the actors’ mouths.
Every member of the cast speaks with perfect diction and moves effortlessly through the space. And despite some occasional overplaying and some unfortunate French accents, the cast is generally good. Tim Decker is a genial if somewhat unctuous Maugham, far more sympathetic than the raving misogynist Maugham’s writings reveal him to be. Jerry Phelan’s Elliott Templeton is right on target, capturing both the grandeur and the tragic desperation of a man obsessed with a nobility he can never attain. Debbie Miller as Sophie MacDonald provides a good deal of depth and intelligence to a character who could easily have fallen into caricature. And faced with the rather daunting task of portraying a saint, Paul Tamney is an intelligent and likable Larry. Tamney has perfected the beatific grin of a man who’s found peace after a long spiritual journey.
