A double dose of selfishness

Arthur Miller’s late-career comedy-drama “The Ride Down Mt. Morgan” targeted the Reagan-era culture of unrestrained self-gratification, but its cautions ring even more true now.

In a rare Southland staging at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, director Heidi Helen Davis nails Miller’s sharp-edged satirical criticisms of selfishness taken to its logical conclusion. Written and staged in an experimental style that blurs the boundaries between present reality, memory and fantasy, the play explores the life of an unrepentant bigamous cad. Miller’s appropriately named antihero is Lyman Felt, whose recent car accident brings together at his hospital bedside the two wives (and lives) he’s kept separate for the past nine years.

His bad behavior notwithstanding, Lyman (Stephen Macht) is not a character that lends himself to easy moral judgment. In his youth, he successfully built a company that set new standards for social responsibility. Now, at 54, his pursuit of pleasure mirrors a broader abdication of ideals in which we are all complicit. Furthermore, he’s a master at rationalization, twisting betrayal into an act of integrity: “I can’t worship self-denial -- it’s just not who I am.”

The objects of his affection represent polar extremes, each satisfying different emotional needs. His Manhattan wife of 32 years, Theodora (Ellen Geer, in a perfect portrait of patrician Wasp repression) provides stability and predictability; his upstate spouse Leah (Melora Marshall) supplies passion and spontaneity.

Also on hand for the play’s short, kaleidoscopic sequences are Lyman and Theo’s daughter (Willow Geer), their attorney and moral compass (William Dennis Hunt), and a no-nonsense hospital nurse (Earnestine Phillips). Davis’ staging makes good use of different areas in the Theatricum’s expansive outdoor environs for Lyman’s twisting mental journey.

Lyman’s crowning second-act argument -- that each of his wives had led happier lives than they would have without him -- is not without validity. But the essential likability and sex appeal that give Lyman emotional credibility eludes Macht’s performance, which oscillates between self-righteous defiance and needy despair. Like his literary ancestor, Willy Loman, Lyman is a salesman -- a better one, in fact. But without the kind of charm that oozes past our moral condemnation, this Lyman makes his wives look like fools rather than victims.

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‘The Ride Down Mt. Morgan’

Where: Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga

When: 8 p.m. Saturdays, through Sept. 24; 7:30 p.m. Sundays, through Sept. 4; 3 p.m. Sundays Oct. 1 and 8

Ends: Oct. 8

Price: $15-25

Contact: (310) 455-3723 or

Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes