THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS AIRDATE: May 27, 2005
A woman who desperately wants a man – and a man who
desperately wants to be a woman. Gender takes center stage in two plays with
fascinating premises and excellent performances.
In “Viburnum,” the most acclaimed production of last year’s
Fritz Blitz of New Plays by California Playwrights, we meet Verne, the spinster
who’s got one last chance, one final date. She has virtually no experience with
men, lives in the past, lamenting her long-dead mother and cold, distant
father. As she comes downstage to describe her pathetic little life, she’s
interrupted by a trio of women, a sprightly preteen fantasist, a 20-something
idealist and a 40-ish cynic. After awhile, we realize that these are earlier
incarnations of herself, who chastise and berate her like cruel sisters. But
Verne retains a shred of hope that maybe this time, she can have a smidgen of
success and a modicum of happiness.
In Doug Field’s beguiling play, reprised by the Fritz in
tweaked and shortened form, the ending is left deliciously enigmatic.
First-rate director Katie Rodda has retained most of her original, outstanding
ensemble, with the melancholic but optimistic Rhona Gold at the center,
surrounded by delightfully energetic Rachael von Wormer, perky if delusional Sharla
Boggs and amusingly astringent D. Candis Paule. It isn’t a pretty picture, of
women eternally waiting by the phone, but Field’s perception of men is none too
favorable, either. His is a poignant play, performed by an excellent, affecting
ensemble.
“Looking for Normal” also paints a picture that’s slightly
askew. After two kids and 25 years of marriage, middle-class, Midwestern Roy
needs a change. A big one. He feels he’s been living a lie; he’s really a woman
trapped in a man’s body, and he’s determined to have a sex-change operation.
Jane Anderson’s humorously discomforting but compassionate play shows the full
spectrum of reactions to this cataclysmic announcement, via a range of
ancillary and frankly unnecessary characters; a well-meaning pastor, a mildly
amorous boss, Roy’s maternalistic mother and curmudgeonly father, and his
pontificating ghost of a grandma. Though each is well played, the real story is
in the immediate family, in the heartbreaking responses of the pubescent tomboy
daughter, hostile older son and put-upon wife, who’s asked to stay with Roy
even after he becomes Ruth, because she’s the love of his life. John Rosen and
Terri Park are terrific as the shell-shocked couple, and Natasha Feldman and
Lance Rogers are tragically credible as their kids. As crusty Roy Sr., Duane
Leake makes a touching transition from patriarch to second infancy.
Both compelling plays, and their stirring, sensitive
productions, concern an aching need, but ultimately, they’re redefining trust
and love.
©2005 Patté Productions Inc.