February 13–March 18, 2007
Living in a Climate of Change
by Michael Crabb
David Rambo wrote The Ice-Breaker, his Laguna Playhouse debut work, by default. It was the indirect outcome of a national tragedy.
Rambo has been on the writing staff of CBS’s hit drama series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation since 2003 but much as he loves the hectic challenges of television his heart remains in live theatre. The many-talented Rambo – for a while he was a successful real estate agent and deals a mean hand on the ivories – has been writing plays for more than a decade. His adaptations of classic screenplays – All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard and Adam's Rib, with marquee names to perform them – have been staged to benefit the Actors Fund of America. Los Angeles audiences were delighted by Rambo’s revised version of Lerner and Loewe’s Paint Your Wagon in 2004.
Long before that his second play, There’s No Place Like House, had earned Rambo the attention of A.S.K. Theater Projects, a now sadly defunct charitable foundation that from 1989 until 2003 invested in developing new work for the stage, including, among others, Rambo’s runaway 1999 hit, God’s Man in Texas.
In the summer of 2001, A.S.K. partnered with Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse to commission a work from Rambo that would deal with what he describes as “the illusion of security in America.” Within a month, however, the nation was reeling from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “After that,” says Rambo, “every idea I had seemed so trivial. I told them I can’t do that.”
The Geffen still wanted a play from Rambo and in January 2002, as searched for fresh inspiration, he read journalist Elizabeth Kolbert’s warning-call New Yorker article about rapid climate change, “Ice History.” Rambo’s mind shifted into overdrive as he grasped a parallel between ice-core drilling, the science of climate change and the human drama of two people getting to know each other, exploring layers of each other’s past.
Rambo immediately went to Geffen artistic Randall Arney. “I told him there was a metaphor here I just couldn’t resist.” Arney said: “Go for it.” And so The Ice-Breaker began its long gestation.
Rambo, schooled by librarian parents to be a dogged researcher, read all he could find on climate change. He talked to the experts. As the drama began to form in his imagination Rambo took a driving trip through the desert and was impressed by the contrasting yet strangely similar aridity it shared with Earth’s polar extremities.
In an early developmental reading – he had a first draft written by the fall of 2002 – the play’s skilful blend of science and romance caught the attention of CSI writing scouts and helped win Rambo win his fulltime job with CBS. It was not until March 2006, however, that The Ice-Breaker was finally given its world premiere at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre.
The Ice-Breaker is a sometimes humorous, often poignant drama about a man and a woman, almost 20 years apart in age and decidedly different in character, who discover a transformative human connection through their shared though divergent interest in climate change.
Sonia Milan has written a doctoral thesis on climate change. During a research trip to Greenland’s ice cap, a millennia-old trove of compressed layers of snow, she finds a hauntingly personal journal accidentally left by an earlier researcher, Dr. Lawrence Blanchard. The once distinguished paleogeologist’s work has long been Sonia’s inspiration but Lawrence Blanchard vanished from the academic radar screen more than a decade earlier. For Sonia, he has remained a “mentor-in-absentia” – until now.
The discovery of Lawrence’s journal, a poetic account of his Greenland journey addressed to “Dear Thea,” prompts Sonia to find her intellectual hero. Somewhere deep in her subconscious, “Dear Thea” is morphing into “Dear Sonia.”
She finally tracks him down to an untidy desert home in the searing heat of the American southwest. Lawrence has become a loner and recluse. When the fast-talking, over-energized Sonia bursts in he is all iceberg and far from welcoming. In a mix of non-sequitur stream-of-consciousness babble – peppered with oddly disturbing third-person self-references – Sonia explains that she wants him to read her thesis. She knows that her doctoral supervisor – and ex-lover – is the same backstabbing professor who trashed her hero’s reputation. Lawrence thinks at least, that he has put the past to rest. He’s more interested in ancient Anasazi native culture and in preserving his defensively constructed isolation.
A key element in Sonia’s academic quest is the possible connection between rapid global warming and the onset of Earth’s cyclical ice ages. As the drama unfolds a process of human melting takes place during which Lawrence slowly succumbs to Sonia’s feverish warmth. They reveals layers of their past lives – lost loves, personal traumas, humiliations and disappointments – that draw them closer. In the end, Lawrence rediscovers the joy of human connection.
“People isolate themselves out of anger or fear,” says David Rambo, “until they’re reminded again of how wonderful it is to be touched.”
Although The Ice-Breaker is fundamentally a character-driven drama, for Rambo the articulating backdrop of scientific ideas is also very important. It is not a political “message” play but Rambo certainly hopes Sonia’s passionate intellectual quest will prompt audiences to give more thought to global warming and its consequences.
Interestingly, some of this came about before Rambo had worked his play towards its final version. “The science is now more widely understood,” he explains. “It allowed me to cut down on the exposition.”
There are real-life inspirations in The Ice-Breaker. Elements of Sonia’s character are drawn from an actual climate scientist, “who I’ll never name,” insists Rambo. As for Thea, a potent unseen figure in the play, her name memorializes Thea Ramsey, a dear friend and professional colleague from Rambo’s early days as a performer in New York.
The emotional impact of her premature 1987 death from cystic fibrosis played a significant role in prompting Rambo to move to Los Angeles, where despite a financially necessitated stint in real estate sales, his career as a playwright took off.
Changing landscapes. The chance for renewal. Art and life working together.
David Rambo Bio
-- Michael Crabb reports on the arts for Canada’s national newspaper, The National Post. He is the author of numerous books and is the award-winning producer of CBC radio’s “The Arts Report.”
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