Ruskin presents “The Substance of Fire”

The first time I read Jon Robin Baitz’s 1991 play, The Substance of Fire, and later saw the film made from it, I liked it. I wasn’t alone – the success of that play catapulted Baitz into theater stardom and garnered Ron Rifkind a Drama Desk award. Seeing the show again thirty-three years later, with twenty-seven years of theatre reviewing onboard, I was surprised upon seeing it again that perhaps I’d overrated its quality long ago. The new revival at the Ruskin Group Theatre is what brought on this reassessment, a production which unfortunately adds uneven performances to the mix.

In 1987 New York, Isaac Geldhart (Rob Morrow) runs a publishing firm specializing in obscure books. His adult children, all stockholders, meet with him because they’re concerned that his choice of books is going to bankrupt the company. Aaron (Emmitt Butler), the MBA graduate who actually works with his father, is pleading with Isaac to publish a novel people might actually enjoy. Actress Sarah (Fiona Dorn) just wants to keep peace within the family. Landscape architecture teacher Martin (Barret T. Lewis) wants nothing to do with any of this conflict, but when Isaac pushes them all to a breaking point, he pushes back.

Morrow’s performance is more successful in the second act, in which he manages to portray the older, less certain-of-himself Isaac with touching empathy and humor. He’s less convincing as the more domineering and cruel Isaac in act one. Marcia Cross, who plays social worker Marge in the second half of the show, is quite good but stuck with a role that seems shoehorned in from another story. Dorn does a nice job but doesn’t quite bring Sarah fully to life, and Lewis’ performance as Martin seems tonally limited and less compelling than it might be. Butler, however, is excellent as the openly angry and secretly sorrowful Aaron, and his quiet speech about his father’s eternal disappointment with him is a highlight of the show.

Mike Reilly’s direction is fine in its staging aspects but fares less well in overseeing the caliber of performance. Ryan Wilson’s set design uses the small space expertly, and having different colors on the wall of Isaac’s home to indicate the missing framed rarities he’s had to sell to make ends meet is a great, subtle detail.

It seems to me now that the two acts of Substance seem more like loosely connected one-acts than one cohesive work, which dampens the overall dramatic power of the play. It also seems like a young playwright’s show, in which many of the characters exist solely to represent a point of view instead of being fully rounded roles. There’s a lot of speechifying here, and characters saying things that you might read in a book but never hear in actual conversation. As a result, this “family” seems like a group of unrelated people, which again undercuts the dramatic impact. That being said, Baitz is a talented writer, and the moments of humor and self-reflection still strike home.

The Substance of Fire is presented by and at Ruskin Group Theatre and plays through September 1, 2024. Tickets are available at http://www.ruskingrouptheatre.com