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| Virginia Kull, Beth Dixon, and Amy Brenneman in "Rapture, Blister, Burn" Photo by Carol Rosegg |
Playwright Gina Gionfriddo,
who a couple of years back gave us the sharply comic Becky Shaw (a Pulitzer
Prize finalist), is back with Rapture, Blister, Burn, an equally smart and funny new play that pits
feminist theory against the complicated reality of human relationships, and
where Betty Friedan and Phyllis Schlafly both emerge as worthy role models.
As she did with Becky Shaw,
Gionfriddo proves herself to be a great weaver of a complex tapestry, in which
the obvious and predictable become less and less so as the play moves along, while
still leading us to a most satisfying ending.
If you are not quite sure
who Betty Friedan and Phyllis Schlafly are, or if you need to brush up on
First-Wave, Second-Wave, and Third-Wave Feminist Theory, no worries! Cathy, a renowned author and professor of
women’s studies, is on hand to elucidate.
Cathy has taken a leave of
absence from her prestigious job and apartment in New York City to return to
her family home somewhere in suburban New England, ostensibly to care for her
mother, Alice, who has suffered a mild heart attack.
Once we meet Alice, however,
and see how peppy, independent, and full of life she is, we begin to wonder
whether Cathy might be seeking something else entirely. Could it be Don, the man she was once in love
with and whom she lost to her college roommate Gwen?
Of course, that is all in
the past. Gwen and Don have been married
for 15 years and have two sons. Gwen is
a stay-at-home mom, while Don is a dean at the local college. Very settled.
Or not.
Don has secured Cathy a
teaching job at his college starting in the fall, but she will also teach a
feminist seminar during the summer term.
She only has two students, Gwen and Avery, Gwen and Don’s former
babysitter. They will hold their weekly
meetings at Alice’s home.
Granted, this is a writer’s
setup, but what a great setup it is, since it allows for three generations of
women to come together to consider the impact of feminism of the lives of U. S.
women over the years. Alice is in her 60s, Cathy and Gwen in their
40s, and Avery in her 20s. Their
discussions, which take up a large portion of Act I, are most enlightening in showing
how quickly perceptions have changed over a short span of time.
And because the group is so
intimate, the conversations, fueled in part by the martinis that Alice mixes
and serves each week, quickly move from the intellectual to the personal.
Gwen, who is a recovering
alcoholic, is sick of her slacker pot-smoking, beer-guzzling, porn-addicted
husband (a “charming devil” he calls himself; you decide) and wishes she could
have the kind of free and productive life she envisions Cathy as having. For her part, Cathy, faced even fleetingly
with the thought of her mother’s mortality, feels she has missed out on the stability
and comfort of a husband and children.
You may be able to guess at
some of the plot twists—but not all of them.
Gionfriddo has a way of keeping you off balance by making sure her
characters are reliably unpredictable, and she reminds us that in the war
between mind and heart, the winning side is never a sure bet.
So raise a glass to Alice
and to Betty Friedan and, yes, even to Phyllis Schlafly, as well as to Gina
Gionfriddo for giving us this splendid new play.
And kudos to director Peter
DuBois and the entire ensemble cast: Kellie
Overbey as Gwen, Amy Brenneman as Cathy, Lee Tergesen as the hapless Don,
Virginia Kull as Avery, and especially Beth Dixon as Alice, the kind of mother
any woman (or man) would want to have, about whom Cathy understands that no one
will ever love her more.
DISCOUNT TICKETS TO RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN for BLOG READERS:
Regular run: May 18-June 24
Tues 7, Wed-Fri at 8, Sat at 2:30 & 8, Sun at 2:30 & 7:30
Additional Monday evening perf June 11 at 7
Order by June 5 and use the code RBBLOG [note two B’s]
$40 (reg. $70) for all performances May 18-27
$50 (reg. $70) for all other performances May 29-June 24
Online:
https://www.ticketcentral.com/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=10613999-17A1-44C0-9B55-02D6C3534E5E&sessionlanguage=
Or Call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 Noon to 8 PM daily
Or Go to Ticket Central Box Office, 416 W. 42nd Street.
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