Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Theater Review: Smudge

Greg Keller and Brian Sgambati
Just Who’s the Monster Here?
By Lauren Yarger
It’s every parent’s nightmare, only Colby and Nick never get to wake up in Rachel Axler’s dark comedic drama Smudge playing Off-Broadway the Women’s Project.

Cassandra, the healthy baby girl they had dreamed of during Colby’s pregnancy, turns out to be an “undetected anomaly,” a deformed jelly-fish-like stump of a being with no arms, one eye and a spike at her tail. Colby (Cassie Beck) is repulsed by her child and by the fact that she can’t love it. Nick (Greg Keller) is in denial, hovering over the carriage urging his “beautiful” daughter to play “catch” with a strange stuffed carrot toy (that might look a lot like the child) and demanding that Colby bond with the baby while he happily goes off to do work on the census with his older brother Pete (Brian Sgambati).

Pam MacKinnon expertly directs, physically placing Colby far away from the creature in the carriage hooked up to life support through a series of surging, beeping, glowing tubes and using a minimalist set (Narelle Sissons) of two chairs and a bunch of filing boxes stacked up all around the stage topped by a glass ceiling, that might just be a metaphor as well as a scene topper. The space doubles as the couple’s home and the brothers’ office, each with Cassandra’s carriage ever-present.

Try as she might to neatly “file” her life, Colby can’t find a folder that adequately labels Cassandra. She turns to dark humor (and a lot of cheese cake) while trying to get close to what she thought was just a ‘smudge” on a sonogram while being pushed further away by Nick’s who leaves their marriage bed.

Beck is chilling as the mother vindictively cutting the sleeves off of the baby’s sleepers while nonchalantly explaining to her husband, “It doesn’t have limbs, it doesn’t need sleeves.”

We feel her despair as she threatens to slice the baby’s tubes just to see if she can provoke a response from it. It’s compelling and hits every raw nerve.

Colby eventually replaces the hated carrot with “Mr. Limbs,” a ball-like creature she crafts out of stuffing and sewing together the dismembered sleeper sleeves and legs. Cassandra appears to respond to it and Colby starts to bond. Nick, however, takes on more work and refuses to return calls from his frantic mother who wants a picture of the baby. Pete finally visits the house to snap a photo for her, but retreats when he sees Cassandra.

Pete’s character is awkward, as he is an outlet for most of the play’s humor. Axler won an Emmy for her writing on the “Jon Stewart Show” and now writes for “Parks and Recreation,” so she knows how to write a joke. There’s just something uncomfortable about laughing in the midst of what’s taking place in these people’s lives.

The most intriguing question Axler raises, however, is not about whether the couple will be able to cope. It is more about who exactly is the monster here? It sure isn’t the innocent child beeping and gurgling on life support. Is it the mother who calls her daughter a “freaking hot dog,” the father who tries to measure public opinion about killing the baby by adding specific, masked questions to a census survey or the brother who is so self-absorbed that he doesn’t care about the tragedy that’s just taken place in his brother’s family?

Cassie Beck and Greg Keller

Before you judge too quickly, there’s another candidate for the title of monster – you – and me. I think Colby’s jiggling of the Mr. Limbs toy at the carriage is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I wanted to laugh out loud, but stifled it, because if I think that’s funny, just what kind of monster does that make me? Axler understands. The play was inspired by “the most horrible thought” she ever had after she saw someone like Cassandra.

If you’re too realistic, this play might keep you from pondering the larger questions while you spend time thinking about things like, would the doctors really not be able to tell something was wrong during the pregnancy? Would the grandmother not get on a plane when she can’t raise Nick on the phone? Would Pete and/or his wife not visit sooner or more often? Doesn’t Colby have any friends or relatives?

Suspending reality on those things gives Axler the ability to put these characters in isolation so she can examine their deepest thoughts. Rewriting the play to address them would be possible of course, but the result as it stands is worth cutting some slack. The subject matter is difficult and off-putting, but it really makes you think. The characters, even the never-seen baby, are well defined and you can relate to at least one of them. That kind of drama is what makes good theater.

Smudge plays through Feb. 7 at the Julia Miles Theatre, 424 W. 55th St., NYC. Tickets are available by calling 212-757-3900

Christians might also like to know:
• Language
• Lord’s name taken in vain

1 comment:

Zev Valancy said...

I was lucky enough, with Lauren, to see the workshop of this show at the 2008 Eugene O'Neill Festival. (We also got to know the playwright, who's a really lovely person.) It's an incredibly uncomfortable show, and one that will poke at the deepest fears of anyone who has even considered having children. Lauren, if you think it would be appropriate, I'd be interested to hear about how it might have changed since the workshop 18 months ago.

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Our reviews are professional reviews written without a religious bias. At the end of them, you can find a listing of language, content or theological issues that Christians might want to know about when deciding which shows to see.

** Mature indicates that the show has posted an advisory because of content. Usually this means I would recommend no one under the age of 16 attend.

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

My Bio

Lauren Yarger has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists. Her play concept, "From Reel to Real: The Jennifer O'Neill Story" was presented as part of the League of professional Theatre Women's Julia's reading Room Series in New York. Shifting from reviewing to producing, Yarger owns Gracewell Productions, which produced the Table Reading Series at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT. She trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Intensive and other training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run. She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She wrote reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/.

She is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (http://ctarts.blogspot.com), an award-winning website featuring theater and arts news for the state. She was a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com. She previously served as theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer, Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web.

She is a Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is a former vice president and voting member of The Drama Desk.

She is a freelance writer and playwright (member Dramatists Guild of America). She is a member if the The Outer Critics Circle (producer of the annual awards ceremony) and a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, serving as Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter. Yarger was a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

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All material is copyright 2008- 2024 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

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Key to Content Notes:

God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.

Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.

Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.

Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.

Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.

Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.

Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.

Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.

Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.

Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.

Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

Derogatory (category added Fall 2012) Language or circumstances where women or people of a certain race are referred to or treated in a negative and demeaning manner.

Other content matters such as torture, suicide, or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.

The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

Reviewing Policy

I receive free seats to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle. Journalistically, I provide an unbiased review and am under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows my readers want to know about I will purchase a ticket. If a personal friend is involved in a production, I'll let you know, but it won't influence a review. If I feel there is a conflict, I won't review their portion of the production.

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