Review: Dorothy’s Dictionary Struggles to Find Meaning Between the Words

By D.R. Lewis
October 4, 2023

This review originally appeared in Washington City Paper.

For millennia, dictionaries have served to inform readers of the meanings, variations, and characteristics of countless words and phrases. Brief, colorful definitions combine to make massive, organized texts, bringing a sense of order and logic to the chaos of language. But unlike its reference book namesake, Dorothy’s Dictionary by E.M. Lewis, running through Oct. 22 at Washington Stage Guild, struggles to balance meaningful insight with pragmatic storytelling.

Like Merriam-Webster’s latest edition, Dorothy’s Dictionary is rooted in well-trodden territory. Following a fistfight at school, a troubled teenager named Zan (Alexander Kim) is sentenced to community service in lieu of juvenile detention. He is assigned to a self-described “displaced librarian,” Dorothy (Deidra LaWan Starnes), whose declining health has forced a relocation from her beloved library to a small room in a convalescent home. As a favor to Dorothy and her failing eyes, a judge has sent Zan to her room three times a week to read to her in order to fulfill his service commitment. Their initially contentious relationship soon gives way to a codependent friendship, where Zan accepts Dorothy’s quirks and addresses her literary needs, and she instills a sense of purpose and self-confidence in him through reading.

Stories of intergenerational friendships, in which the younger must absorb the life lessons of their elderly counterpart as they both face the inevitability of mortality, has been an element, if not the dramatic center, of countless books, films, and plays: On Golden Pond, Tuesdays with Morrie, Harold and Maude, the list goes on.

But Lewis attempts to add her unique spin to this familiar tune through a booklike structure, incorporating defined “chapters,” which function as whole scenes or clusters, to move the story along. But the innovation stops there and, for the sake of expeditiousness (the show runs 70 minutes without an intermission), Lewis jolts between scenes, occasionally introducing surprising, but soon-forgotten, inconsequential, or incredible plot points (including the astonishing revelation of Dorothy’s true age and the head-scratching stashing of a Jell-O cup behind a potted plant). Details about the characters’ backgrounds are rarely given more than a line or two. Even so, Starnes works exceptionally hard to add depth to a character who otherwise is given only an archetypal treatment (for instance, she claims, “I’m difficult—I ring the bell too much.” But we never see Dorothy act as anything other than a model patient, let alone ring the bell). And Kim makes the most of his character’s genre-typical, but not particularly detailed, hardships (deceased mother, distant father, school bullying, etc.).

Perhaps most detrimentally, the play struggles to realistically establish itself at a specific point in time. Despite references to Kendrick Lamar and other current cultural touchstones, a 15-year-old Zan confides with utmost seriousness that he’d never heard of a library until he met Dorothy. The outlandishness of the statement was shocking, not only because the crux of the plot was Zan’s compulsion to use his existing reading skills to help Dorothy, but because the iPhone, which he frequently twirls, contains built-in digital libraries for books, music, podcasts, and other media.

Capturing the language of modern teenagers is a troublesome endeavor, given the ephemeral nature of slang and pop culture trends against the time it takes to write and produce a play. Lewis falls into the same trap as many writers who make a teen character the center (or at least a major part of) their story. Rather than developing the character’s distinct voice out of their background and personality, she instead relies on buzzwords to signal to her audience that this is a teenager who is plugged into the zeitgeist. But references to Lamar and the overuse of the word “like” as conversation filler cannot hide the fact that this teenager was written by an adult. Even so, Kim successfully plays through the pitfalls and gives a strong showing in his Washington theater debut.

That’s not to say that the play was void of meaningful interactions or impactful moments. Under Laura Giannarelli’s direction, the play’s final chapter is particularly moving. It is in this well-written sequence that Lewis fully unleashes her love of words, particularly those that encompass emotions and relationships much larger than our everyday language can adequately describe. This resolution inspired emotional reactions from many in the audience, including this reviewer. But, ultimately, the tightness of the ending left me wondering if the play was written in reverse—its first 60 minutes or so contrived simply as a means to arrive at this touching end.

The play unfolds on Megan Holden’s skeleton-like convalescent home set. The hollow walls of the room are made of solid white beams and poles, peppered with book-filled shelves and other librarianly creature comforts alongside the standard accoutrement of a long-term medical facility; a withering body with the scars and marks of a life well-read. Marianne Meadows’ cool blue lighting evokes the sterility of a nursing home, but areas of warm lamp light remind us that even the gloomiest days can see pockets of sun. And Danielle Scott’s costumes appropriately underscore the personality and generational differences between the two characters.

The irony that Dorothy’s Dictionary is playing across the street from a Carnegie Library turned Apple Store simply cannot go unmentioned. In a city with 26 public libraries and several nationally regarded independent bookstores, Lewis is in good company with nostalgia for her beloved books, and bibliophiles may relish this ode to the written word. But, ultimately, what Dorothy’s Dictionary offers in deference, it lacks in definition.

E.M. Lewis’ Dorothy’s Dictionary, directed by Laura Giannarelli, runs through Oct. 22 at Washington Stage Guild. stageguild.org. $50–$60.

Alexander Kim as Zan and Deidra LaWan Starnes as Dorothy in Washington Stage Guild’s Dorothy’s Dictionary; Credit: DJ Corey Photography