On the Verge


Eric Overmyer engages in some pretty fancy word play in his 1985 play On the Verge or The Geography of Yearning. The play is a language-based fantasy about three women who travel from 1888 to 1955. They set out from Terre Haute to explore a tropical land called Terra Incognita and they end up at a nightclub in a city called Peligrosa.

The erudite dialogue uses an expansive vocabulary and techniques like alliteration and assonance. It takes a few minutes for our ears to realize the demands that the playwright is making, but when we do it’s fun to meet the challenge. One of the women comments on the linguistic acrobats from time to time in a way suited to the time travelers. “I have seen the future and it is slang,” she says. And Overmyer has some fun when the youngest woman occasionally produces malapropisms and then corrects them. “I am dieting to rock and roll. I mean determined, not dieting,” she says.

Still, clever as it is, the playwright’s word play becomes tedious after a while. Moreover, linguistic fireworks are not enough to make a satisfying play. On the Verge is not a drama. There are events, but they’re episodic. There’s no structured plot, only a story. The three women have no real motivations for their journey and as a result, the characters aren’t sharply defined.

The three women explore the tropics and realize that they’re being projected into the future. By osmosis – to use their own term – they assimilate phrases from the future without necessarily understanding them. And they find artifacts of the future without any explanation for them. An I Like Ike button instills a yearning to meet Ike (they never do).

The Attic Theater Company has just produced the play Off-off-Broadway and Overmyer enjoys a very nice production. The three actresses – Ella Dershowitz, Emily Kitchens and Monette Magrath – give solid performances, reserved without being dull. But they never really succeed in overcoming the weaknesses of the characterizations.

The fourth cast member, William John Austin, the only male actor, is terrific in eight roles. An actor playing several small roles often relies on indications and mannerisms. But Mr. Austin gives an emotionally grounded, natural performance in each role. His characters have specific biographies. His physical life is never false. He’s as believable as a teenage boy as he is as a lounge singer.

All right – one of his characters is an exception. He plays a young yeti the women chance upon. It’s the play’s most fanciful moment.

Laura Braza’s direction is precise and disciplined, never dwelling or rushing. Julia Noulin-Merat’s set makes no attempt to reproduce the jungle the women are exploring. It uses the sort of scaffolding we associate with a rock show. The choice doesn’t make sense since the travelers never break through 1955, but the contrast between the set and Emily Rosenberg’s Victorian costumes expresses the displacement of time travel.

The Attic’s On the Verge is, in the balance, a fine production. It’s an admirable company that chooses such demanding material.

Steve Capra
June 2016

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. ...
Read more