Martyrs

photo by Theo Cote

Romana Soutus’ play Martyrs, at La MaMa, presents nine women in a room with two king-sized beds and a garish sort of expressionist Madonna on the wall. The walls are chicken wire, like a cage.

This is a secluded cult, with three leaders whom the program calls cats, and six followers whom the program calls kittens. They’re all waiting be “lifted”, living in the eternal present. “There’s no before. There’s only now,” one says. They talk a lot, but nothing happens until late in the play. Nothing can happen because the characters, for the most part, are deliberately not individuated. The cats are three manifestations of cat and the kittens are six manifestations of kitten. What happens to one cat physically happens to all three.

This is innovative playwrighting as far as it goes. And it’s clever of Ms. Soutus to  keep the play so abstruse that we spend the early part asking “Who are these people? What’s happening?” However, she hasn’t overcome the problem of plotlessness, and the play doesn’t work because it has no shape. For example, one kitten says “What if I don’t want to be lifted?” An interesting question, but nothing comes of it.

The play is at its best when it gives us observations on the abandonment of individuality. When a kitten says “I want you,” it means they all want each other. And three kittens slap themselves simultaneously as a punishment for something or other - it’s not clear what.

And Ms. Soutus shows interesting flashes of insight: “I keep you around because I need a witness. Courage needs witnessing,” one cat says to the kittens. “I accuse myself of sadness,” someone says. And for all their spiritual blather, what we remember is a mysterious symbol: “You can never be empty with that toad in you,” a kitten says to a cat, reversing the teacher/student roles.

Ms. Soutus makes some interesting points otherwise as well. The cats are disappointed when they’re not lifted - “I’m not good enough. I tried so hard,” one says - but the kittens can deal with it. The cult followers have more freedom than the leaders here. 

The play is drenched in estrogen, of course, but it tastes like testosterone. Ms. Soutus confounds our expectations of femininity with violence.

Things do happen in the play, but they happen one after another without one leading to another. The director fails to explicate the action or give shape to the play. We’re usually bewildered. What’s more, the costume designer has put both the cats and the kittens in white. She’s making a statement, but she’s not helping us by obfuscating character entirely. Worse, the playwright has a disgusting obsession with toileting.

So let’s take from Martyrs what we can - a suggestion of how to write about homogenous personalities, the strength of delayed exposition… And leave the rest.

Review
Steve Capra

April 2018

Popular posts from this blog

Anouilh's Antigone

There is a moment in Fusion Theatre’s production of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone (at Theatre Row’s Studio Theatre) when Creon says to Antigone “Don’t annihilate me with those eyes.” And indeed, Antigone’s unrelenting stare does seem to be annihilating him, as it’s been annihilating everyone. As Antigone, Eilin O’Dea motivates Creon’s line so well that it seems Anouilh has written it in response to the actress. Anouilh’s play, as this production makes clear, is an important drama. Anouilh reworked Sophocles’ play keeping the ancient Greek names and keeping the action in Thebes. The characters, however, mention tobacco, blood tests, film and cars. The dissonance reminds us that Anouilh’s message of courage and moral responsibility is ageless. Anouilh has created a raisonneur in a character called simply The Chorus. Tragedy, he tells us, “has nothing to do with melodrama”. “In tragedy, argument is gratuitous,” he says, but this is a very strange line; Antigone and Creon will soo
Read more

C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert

C.S. Lewis lived between 1898 and 1963. He’s best known for his works of fiction such as The Screwtape Letters and The Chronicles of Narnia , although his non-fiction work is arguably more important. He ranks among the foremost 20 th -century Christian apologists and theologians. Max McLean has written a terrific solo show in which he presents Lewis in his study at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1950, C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert . Mr. MacLean is the show’s actor, and he’s co-directed it with Ken Denison. The script details Lewis’ conversion from atheism to Christianity, delineating the transformation in discrete steps. Lewis begins with his childhood in Belfast: “Mother’s death produced in me a deeply engrained pessimism,” he tells us. And “At 13 I ceased to be a Christian. At that age one scarcely notices.” He was confirmed in The Church of Ireland “in total disbelief.” The script presents us with the structure of Lewis’ life – his time at Oxford, his enli
Read more

A Blanket of Dust

Image
Photo by Sharon Kinsella In Richard Squires’ play A Blanket of Dust, presented at The Flea Theater by Delphi Film in association with Alfonso Ramos and Eve Pomerance, a woman, Diane, looses her husband in the 9-11 disaster. She’s convinced that the government is responsible for the catastrophe, and campaigns to uncover the conspiracy. She’s a Senator’s daughter, so the issue becomes a family affair. Years later, she becomes involved with Andrew, a book store owner active in the dissident movement. Andrew is also at odds with his parents on political issues (his father is in government but it’s not clear what his position is.) In frustration, Andrew commits suicide - he sets fire to himself - in protest. This is all pretty grim, but, well, it’s a grim world, and it’s good to see issue- committed theater.   Mr. Squires’ keeps his script as lean as the WTC towers. The characters have no identity aside from their attitudes toward the issue, aside from the sketchy romance. Ther
Read more