[Miss] at Driftwood

You know what’s coming.

[Miss] at Edmonds Driftwood Players is a play about thalidomide, the drug that was supposed to help pregnant women cope with morning sickness but had disastrous effects, causing miscarriages and birth defects.

In one of the strands of the story, early in the play, you see a young couple, Betty Yoder (Emily Fortuna) and John Yoder (Daniel Hanlon) expecting a baby.  You know what’s coming. 

It’s not until the first scene after intermission that the full, human truth hits.  Betty loses her baby.  Fortuna’s slow collapse into tears and grief was devastating.  Even though you know it’s coming, if you’re like me, you still won’t be prepared for how hard it lands.  I felt what she felt.  I was so sad I cried.  I was so mad at the system I wanted to lead the audience out to march into the street and do something to make it right.

Until intermission, the focus was mostly on the other characters and the story of whether or not the drug would be approved, with the Yoder’s story literally in the background, far upstage.  But Fortuna’s acting in that scene made sure the focus was on the human story underneath the battle between the drug company and the FDA.

This production of [Miss] was a showcase for each of the other actors as well.  All of them brought it home. 

Kris “Pepper” Hambrick has a remarkable moment in Act Two.  She plays Frances Oldham Kelsey, the FDA staffer charged with evaluating the drug company’s application for approval of thalidomide.  Through the first three-quarters of the play, Kelsey is steely, all business, withstanding all the pressure the drug company can throw at her. 

But Kelsey is driven to tears as well.  Even though her insight has proved valid, her doubts are shown to have been justified, and her months of work have paid off with the final denial of the drug after it is shown to be dangerous, she still thinks she could have done more.  “But you did more than anyone else could have,” I wanted to say!

In a bitterly ironic twist, Betty works in sales for the drug company along with her colleague, Mary Beck (Shalonia Wonch.)  Their job is to get doctors to push thalidomide using whatever marketing magic the company can come up with.  Wonch brings such realness to the character, especially in a scene where Mary and Betty talk about how a job is a job while doing their makeup together in a restroom at a sales conference (I think it was.)

In the same way that Hanlon is solid as Betty’s husband and does what he needs to do to complete the picture of the married couple, Noelle Mestres is good as Gertrude Helfer, the assistant to Kelsey at the FDA.  She lifts up her boss every time it’s needed.

DC Dugdale plays two different doctors who can barely be bothered with anything other than golf.  It’s an indictment.

Mike Merz played Dr. Raymond Pogge as such a rat.  As the second-in-command at the drug company, Pogge’s only concern was getting thalidomide approved and making that money.  He was so overzealous that he made Dr. Joseph Murray (Jeffrey Brown) the drug company CEO, seem reasonable by comparison.  Brown plays the CEO as just a normal businessman trying to navigate what he sees as a dilatory bureaucracy, but not really wanting to hurt anyone. 

People are hurt.  It’s only because of Kelsey’s efforts that more harm is avoided.  I liked watching it play out.

Photo taken from Driftwood's Facebook event page.