Reviewed by Judy Richter
The desire and subsequent
decision to change one's gender are fraught with emotional perils, but
playwright Jane Anderson handles them with great sensitivity in "Looking
for Normal,"
staged by Palo Alto Players.
Director
Marilyn Langbehn and
her cast are equal to the delicate task of developing the complexities of each
character's emotional journey.
The
plot focuses on Roy (Keith C. Marshall), a 45-year-old Midwesterner who has been happily
married to his wife, Irma (Shannon Warrick), for 25 years. However, he has been having
problems such as severe headaches. Because no physical cause has been found, he
and Irma go to their pastor, Reverend Muncie (Dave Iverson), for counseling. That's when
Roy says out loud for the first time that he was born in the wrong body. He
should have been a woman, he says.
From
there the action focuses on how each person in his immediate circle responds to
his revelation. Irma is dumbfounded at first, wondering if she's somehow at
fault. Their 13-year-old daughter, Patty Ann (Samantha Gorjanc), seems curious about what
physical changes will occur. Some of her reaction might stem from the fact that
she's a tomboy who might be questioning her sexuality.
Their
22-year-old son, Wayne (Thomas Toland), who's on the road with a rock band, is angry and
disbelieving. Likewise, Roy's mother, Em (Jackie O'Keefe), is dismayed upon reading Roy's
letter and decides not to share it with Roy Sr. (Jack Penkethman). He's a retired farmer who was
harsh on Roy when he was growing up, but now he's declining physically and
mentally.
Frank
(Vic Prosak),
Roy's boss at the John Deere plant and a longtime family friend, is mainly
supportive of Irma. Reverend Muncie searches for answers in the Bible and on
the Internet. The play's other character is Grandmother Ruth (Billie Harris), Roy's deceased paternal
grandmother who left her family and went to Europe when Roy Sr. was 4 years
old. Wearing a tuxedo, she appears at various times to talk frankly and happily
about all of her adventures and lovers, both male and female, throughout her
life.
The
set design by Patrick Klein is relatively simple with the family kitchen on one side
and Roy and Irma's bedroom on the other. Costumes are by Lisa Claybaugh with lighting by Selina Young and sound by George Mauro. Fight choreography is by Michael
Daw.
After
premiering in 2001, the play was made into a 2003 HBO film, "Normal," starring Jessica Lange
and Tom
Wilkinson.
Speaking
to the Palo Alto audience after a recent performance, playwright Anderson said,
"The play is not about transsexualism. It's about a marriage ... a
meditation on what commitment really means."
She
set the play in the Midwest because "No matter what happens, they just get
back on the plow. ... People in the Midwest have the gift for normalcy."
They just go on, she said.
In
the case of Roy and Irma, they do go on because, in the long run, they love
each other no matter what. Even though Marshall was quite hoarse at this
performance, it didn't seem to affect his creation of a gentle, loving man
who's pained by the reactions of those around him but who's even more pained to
remain male. Warrick's Irma has perhaps the most difficult emotional arc.
"How do you redefine a relationship in the face of staggering pressure, or
do you just end it?" Langbehn asks in a series of questions in her
director's note.
"This
play is a study in soul love, or marital love," Anderson said after the
performance. Warrick's Irma and Marshall's Roy shows how powerful such love can
be.
"This
is an extraordinary piece of theater," Langbehn concluded. It's well worth
seeing.