Theatre: Women's Plays

The Roommate by Jen Silverman, directed by Kathryn Van Meter, Arts West through October 19th

Fancy Dancer by Larissa FastHorse, Directed by Chay Yew, Seattle Rep in conjunction with the Seattle Children's Theatre, through November 2nd

 Theatre is for everyone, but some of it skews to a particular demographic. This past weekend the Lovely Bride and I saw two plays, both female-centered and pretty darn good.

Our attendance at both of these plays are delayed by travel - the Lovely B and I were in Pittsburgh for our 50th High School Reunion and pressed on to visit friends and family in Philly (and no, I didn't tell you. I don't tell you everything in these write-ups). So as opposed to opening night at the Arts West or the first few weeks of the Rep's run, we're tuning in late here. 

Friday night, we headed out to West Seattle for The Roommate. A tightly-wound woman in Iowa gains a freewheeling boarder/tenant/housemate in the form of a more worldly Brooklynite. Wackiness ensues, but takes a dark turn as both women evolve off each other. The spirit of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple haunts this, as this is also a play about polar opposites sharing the same space and setting off sparks. But this one has more emotion, more passion, and more grounding than Simon's take on the situation. 

Sharon (Sarah Harlett) is a agitated, frantic worrier, a retired wife and distant from her grown son. She a county mouse, and she frets, cleans, and moves around the stage like a hummingbird, always castigating herself for her mistakes. Robyn (Mari Nelson) is the roommate from New York city, gay, vegan, more comfortable in her skin, trying to quit smoking other nastier habits and make a fresh start. She's the city mouse, a woman with a past. And Harlett and Nelson are brilliant in their roles as their characters move from a wary first encounter to a team-up and to a break-up that leaves them both changed. 

The play itself has some weaknesses, which requires\ you to just accept it as part of the plot., The pair fall in with themselves extremely quickly. We're a little weak on the why and how of why the mousy Sharon wants a roommatein the first place and how Robyn found out about the opportunity. And there are small things that threw me a little, like getting high off of two hits of a reefer and using a traceable land-line to run phone scams (Iowa apparently does not have caller ID). But the acting stands out here as Harlett and Nelson encapsulate their characters. It was definitely worth it, and a strong start to the Arts West season.

Sunday afternoon we caught Fancy Dancer at the Rep, which, again, we also had to delay because of the trip East (actually, it from exhaustion on returning from the trip East, but never mind). Fancy Dancer is a one-woman show presented by the author, alternating with another actor-dancer. We got to watch the playwright perform, a half-Lakota Sioux woman drawing on her own history for the play. Her story is growing up in Minnesota, abandoned by her parents, raised by a white couple, bullied and abused by her fellow students, but finding a goal in life through ballet, and as part of that inspiration through the work of Maria Tallchief, who was America's first prima ballerina as well as half Native American (Osage tribe). 

Maria Tallchief, 
who has her own
quarter

FastHorse tells her story with wonderful dance (of course) and excellent stagecraft. The floor is bare with a minimum of props, but storms and stars are projected on the walls, moving use through time and emotions. The tale runs through many personal setbacks and small triumphs, and ends with her finally getting her first professional job, and finding the strength to move forward. 

The thing is, this is only half the story. doing the research on FastHorse, I found she was a professional ballerina for only a decade, until an injury forced her to retire from the stage. She regrouped and began teaching and writing her own plays, and her voice carried to the point where she was the first known Native American to have a play on Broadway. And that feels like a play on its own.

And this was a performance that reached out to the women in the audience. The audience was heavily weighted towards woman for our matinee, along with more children than I have previously seen at a Rep performance (many of whom, I suspect, were also in dance class). And it is a personal tale of triumph in the face of adversity. 

The Lovely Bride did not care for it as much, in part because it was a one-person show. Without the interaction and conflict of multiple actors, it is less of a play and more of a straight-forward storytelling experience. I think a single-actor play has validity as theatre (though I've seen some real questionable ones over the years), and FastHorse's portrayal of her youth is as much theatre as the two-hander of The Roomate. 

So in the end, I liked these plays, but did not love them. They did not hit home for me, in part because I don't share similar experiences (never took ballet, never felt I had been retired from my marriage). I am, as the Lovely B says, "not the target market". And that's OK. They were well-done, well-performed, and well-presented, and deserve the level of attention. If you're looking for a comedy, I'd give The Roomate the edge. For a more personal tale, check out Fancy Dancer. 

More later.