Reviewed
by Will Stackman
Since
"Sister Mary Ignatius..." in 1981, Christopher Durang's fantastical excursions, some
more successful than others, have incorporated religious satire. His 2005
Pulitzer nominated whirlwind consideration of reincarnation, "Miss
Witherspoon,"
now running at the Lyric Stage, harks back stylistically to "The Actor's
Nightmare", with a single character careening through a psychological
adventure. Director Scott Edmiston, whose Fall production of "The Women" for
Speakeasy just won IRNEs for Best Play and Best Director, couldn't have found a
more ideal title player than Paula Plum, who just picked up another Best Actress award at
this year's IRNEs for Lyric's "...The Goat." Plum, who's created
seven one woman shows as well as appearing for the ART, the Huntington, the
Gloucester Stage, and the Lyric among other companies, easily draws her
audience into this fantasy which carries her from suicide into Bardo, the Buddhist equivalent of
Purgatory, for a series of reincarnations.
Her
guide for this unwilling journey -- Miss W. was hoping to just be dead -- is
perfectly cast Mala Bhattacharya, a Longy grad who's more normally seen and heard singing
opera. Along the path to whatever, she encounters parents, played by Marianna
Bassham, who
gets to alternate between suburban housewife and trailer trash, and comedian Larry
Coen who does
the same as a businessman and a biker. Coen, recently seen as Laura in the Gold
Dust Orphans "Plexiglas Menagerie", also does a turn as Gandalf in
the finale. Bassham played Ophelia last fall in ASP's acclaimed
"Hamlet" and Ymma in the New Reps "Silence" this winter.
Last but hardly least, Jacqui Parker, who just received another IRNE for the title role in
"Caroline or Change", first appears a school councilor but then shows
up in the finale as a really cool Jesus, built off her own sincere faith with
the same twinkle she brought to last year's production of "Crowns."
Durang's satirical potpourri works due largely to Plum's impeccable timing in
response to each new revelation and the rest of the cast's breakneck pace under
Edmiston's sure hand.
Edmiston
also got a design dream team, a group of recent and past IRNE winners otherwise
known as "the designing women," all of whom have done outstanding
work for the Lyric in the past. Janie E. Howland created a unit set full of
whimsy -- baby dolls float over the stage like cherubs -- featuring a framed
scrim at the back of the thrust through which are seen shelves of empty
headforms. MIT's Karen Perlow provides a variety of area lighting and special effects
which add to the interest, full of projections and gobos. Gail Astrid
Buckley once
again provides imaginative costumery, from the title character's frumpy
ensemble to Jesus' white suit and church hat. Fellow IRNE winner, for last
season's "5 by Tenn," created and directed by Edmiston, Dewey
Dellay has come
up with a soundscape which starts with a raga and drifts into popular song.
This
is Miss Witherspoon's show. Plum's onstage for the entire eighty plus madcap
minutes, mostly depressed and over the hill. But she variously plays a baby in
a bassinet -- with an effective touch of puppetry -- the family dog in mime,
and a seeker after peace and quiet, including what's described as "Jewish
heaven; prolonged general anesthesia." The latter turns out to be full of
scrambled memories. Real peace is as hard to achieve in the afterlife as here
below. The play is also a very interesting choice for this Lenten season. Once
again, Durang zeros in on questions not normally raised in secular everyday
theatre, especially the big one; "What's next?" The epiphany he ends
on seems less pat and satirical than the more downbeat conclusions to his other
works.