Coastal Disturbances

by Tina Howe

Artist M.J. Adams, a senior, paints at a private beach on the north shore of Massachusetts. At the end of August, her niece, Holly Dancer, a photographer, has come for a visit to escape her troubled life -- both private and work. The young attractive lifeguard Leo Hart is attracted to Holly, but he is just getting over a failed romance. Another visitor to the beach, Ariel Took, now divorced and bitter, brings her young son Winston to play on the beach, but she cannot get away from her own sadness. Also visiting is Faith, Ariel's Wellesley College roommate, who is pregnant, and who has brought along her adopted daughter Miranda. After Holly and Leo start a romance, Andre Sor, Holly's real romantic interest, arrives. Holly leaves to return to her New York home, and, although she has told Leo that she cannot continue their romance, she gives him her phone number. Finally, M.J. Adams and her husband Dr. Hamilton “Hammy” Adams come to the beach together, comfortable in their long relationship.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

100 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1987

About the author

Tina Howe (November 21, 1937 – August 28, 2023) was an American playwright.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to like Howe’s plays more than I do. The ones I’ve read are forgettable but do leave a sense of feeling like they don’t quite hit the mark.

Coastal Disturbances continues that opinion. It’s an interesting idea, taking place entirely on a single stretch of beach over a two-week period, but it’s inert. It’s mostly characters talking and interacting with no sense of urgency, no driving plot or meaning. The closest the play has to a plot is a quasi-love story between a lifeguard and artist that felt forced. I kept thinking of Talley’s Folly while reading: a two-person play about the push-and-pull of a burgeoning romance that manages to carry the entire play. Even on page, the attraction between the two characters was clear, and it’s one of those plays that stuck with me long after I read it.

Coastal Disturbances, in comparison, feels like a chore. There’s no magic, no sizzle of attraction. Instead it’s people going to a beach and going about their lives, which is fun for a summer afternoon but not necessarily for an evening at the theatre. Not recommended.

[Lisa Fuller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Contrived, vague and overall unpleasant. Maybe I am just too new to this era of scripts, but I truly hated it. If I wanted to see failed people being miserable for unclear reasons saying snippets of nonsense on a beach, this would be perfect. But that's not what I am into, so I really disliked this play.

[Spencer Mirabal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hannah’s been watching “Reba” a lot lately while sewing her caftan for the wedding or making dinner. I tangentially know about the show, as in “Ah yes. Reba. That is one of the shows of all time.” but never really knew what it’s about or who its characters are. Even after she explained it to me, it sounded like another run-of-the-mill 90s/2000s sitcom starring a recognizable face, but for her, watching it relaxing. Whether is passively watching while doing something or actively focused on it, watching it is relaxing and calming and personally introspective.

While not the most imaginatively life changing, “Coastal Disturbances” felt adjacent to that for me. Part of me felt left wondering why there wasn’t more conflict or surprising or life changing happening in the story, but the other part of me felt relaxed, smelling the brine-filled air. It’s like sitting on a beach people watching, but with a pair of headphones that lets you more clearly hear the overlapping yackity yack of those people.

When character details are revealed, they are nonchalant and naturalistic. Nothing is forcing you to feel anything, but gives a taste of enough withholding to make you wonder what pushed that character into that mindset, and because of that, makes you relate more their wantings.

Theater is anti-passive watching, so I respect and understand how the takeaway from “Coastal Disturbances” can be that it’s boring and nothing of impact happens. I also don’t want to go to the beach and see people erupt into deep, challenging conflict, so maybe that’s just me.

Also! The publication of the play I found has beautiful typography and has a few full page black and white photos of the first run production. And and - young Annette Benning was in this? Really cool physical copy of the manuscript. Glad I accidentally stumbled upon it at Verbatim Books. San Diego vibes all around with this respite beach jaunt.

[Jojo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: Going to actually try to give this one a summary. Takes place on a beach and centers around a bunch of characters who all know each other. There's the lifeguard Leo, Holly who is a young photographer, a couple of women and their children, and then this other couple (who kinda are the least relevant I would say). The women each have a son and daughter who are quite obnoxious and also talk much more mature than their age I think. They're supposed to be seven/eight years old but sometimes I do not think they talk their age.
Leo has the hots for Holly and he's a creep if you ask me but for some reason, she gives in to his advances. But then this older art gallery owner shows up and clearly he and Holly have some sort of thing going on. Leo wants Holly to run off with him and she does agree at first but once the gallery owner shows up, she decides to stick with him.
That's about the gist of the thing.
Review: So yeah again I think this one was more palatable than the first two plays. Probably about on par with the penultimate one. Couldn't stand Leo. Thought he was a creep. But yeah I guess this one was fine but not great.
Grade: C+

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truly depressing. Made me question why I read books.

[Brian McCann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just terrible.

[Siouxsie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a play I’d like to see or direct. I didn’t care about the characters and didn’t like how it went from realism to absurdity and back. It just didn’t catch my attention.

[Evelyn Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems I am in the minority with this book, but I enjoyed it. It would be interesting to see live and I thought the storyline and characters were heartwarming.