When I ventured into the city for a Sunday night performance of RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN at Playwright Horizons after a long, exhausting weekend full of work & personal obligations, domesticity and exhaustion, I had no idea that I was headed exactly where I needed to be. As soon as the curtain went up, there was a certain vibe that generated on the stage both from the actors, the set and music, and when they started to speak the words off the brilliant script by Gina Gionfriddo, I was mesmorized for the next two hours. The script deals with issues of feminism, media, the Internet, relationships and the choices we make that impact our lives, all issues of utmost importance to me. The play ponders: If a woman has a child, she wonders what would have happened to her career and life; if a woman bypasses the whole child thing, she wonders what would have been and will never be.
Gionfriddio, who wrote Becky Shaw, clearly did her homework or was a Women’s Studies Major in Graduate School. Apparently, she was deeply influenced by Wendy Wasserstein and I can definitely see what these two female playwrights have in common. They both believe that women have choices, and we are all pretty much not happy with the ones we make, no matter what they are.
Amy Brenneman plays Catherine, a writer and academic, who visits her best friend, Gwen, played by Beth Dixon, and her family 15 years after they lasted parted. Gwen, played by Kellie Overbey, gave up grad school to marry Don, played by Lee Tergessen, who happened to be Catherine’s boyfriend at the time. When we first meet them, it appears to be an impromptu visit while Catherine is visiting her ailing mother in the town where she went to University, but we soon learn that one of them planned it with ulterior motives that are not very Kosher.
They are two very women who chose different paths in life. Catherine chose to move to London after Grad School, leaving Don behind, to head into the life of a successful writer in the feminist genre. Gwen is a stay-at-home mom who’s husband is pot-smoking, porn loving and not very interested in climbing the ladder. He is the Dean at a small university and is largely disgruntled with his own choices in life. Together, they’re in a rut. As Gwen states early on in the show, “At 43, you start to think about the life not lived.” Interestingly enough, all three are faced with futures they never thought they’d pave for themselves. It’s kind of a “how did I get here?” play, only with a twist. The twist being that do they do switch places, something that women never get to do, but I don’t want to reveal how that happens.
In the midst of the complex love triangle, there is much to be learned in this play. As Catherine starts to teach Gwen and her babysitter, played by the marvelous Virginia Kull who I just saw in Assistance at Playwrights Horizons, a class about “The Fall of Civilization” (yes, it’s very funny when they turn up as the only students in the class), the play offers a brief overview of modern history of Feminism in America. The women start to debate Betty Friedan and Phyllis Schlafly and their differences in order to understand where each other stands on their individual roles in life. The discussion becomes focused on Gwen, who made very different choices to Catherine. Friedan was all about choice, Schlafly believed that women were the weaker sex. As their discussion ensues, using philosophy as their base, they reveal truths about their lives. While Catherine thinks that it’s “much easier to be driven with no attachments,” she also believes that it’s easier to get a family than a career and we see a big switch in the second act.
Still in previews, the actors performed with a few mishaps – a few forgotten words here and there. But for the most part, it was a solid performance by all the female actors. Brenneman, known best from “Private Practice,” “Judging Amy,” and “NYPD Blue” is a seasoned stage performer and really seems to understand Catherine’s complexities; Dixon, known from Wings, Major Barbara, Vieux Carre is excellent as Gwen – she’s smart enough to know that the grass is not always greener and she knows how to prove it to her husband; Kull from Assistance at PH, Man and Boy, Dividing the Estate, Old Acquaintance is savvy as the young apprentice who thinks Catherine is the bomb and plays her role with a sense of curiosity and as ingenue to the three experienced actresses; Overbey starred in PH’s The Savannah Disputation and Betty’s Summer Vacation and is funny and memorable as Catherine’s mother; Tergesen’s credits include Good Boys and True, The Exonerated, “Oz,” “The Big C”. Unfortunately, he is the show’s weak link. I never felt a connection to his character and the lack of spark between him and Brenneman took away from the play’s conflict. I needed more heat, more romance to believe Catherine would leave her life for him, but I didn’t get that.
But that didn’t completely take away from my enjoyment of the show. The play is about lost potential, the choices we make and how we hold ourselves to unachievable standards. I’m a huge Wendy Wasserstein fan, and now that she is sadly no longer with us, I’ll follow Gionfriddio anywhere. I won’t deny that these concepts are all on my mind, and I love the way a show zeroed some of the issues that are really important to me at this time of my life.
I am hosting a Twitter Party for MamaDrama on May 30th at 9pm on the show – please come! More info here.
Visit PlaywrightsHorizons.org for more information on the show, including ticket information.
Disclosure: I was provided with these tickets by PLAYTIME! which offers affordable childcare for you and your friends while you’re seeing a show, but all opinions are my own.
Recent Comments