| skillfully
directed by Michal Simpson in the smaller Upstage theater space at the Rose Blumkin Center
for the Performing Arts. The raft in this case is a therapy-encounter group of AIDS
sufferers, 11 of them plus a therapist (ably played by Kay Johnson). The patients, all
able to get around despite varying stages of illness, make for a dramatically interesting
mix. That mix includes an irritable black man, a famous actor, a speech-impaired black
woman, a hoaxer, a chilly heterosexual blonde who blames the gay men in the group for
spreading the virus, a Hispanic man, a 17-year.old girl and a man who has just lost his
lover to the disease. A 12th
character is the deceased lover, Donald, who appears here and there as a fantasy figure
(interestingly played by Rodger Gerberding, whose rich compelling voice underlines the
laden significance of the character except for the opening scene, in which Donald dies in
the presence of his distraught companion Michael. (personable Todd Brooks) and his
psychiatrist, Jeri, the entire play is an 80-minute group session, presented in one run.
Group theater is almost always interesting because of
the clash of personalities it offers and the opportunities for the playwright to use
multiple conversational flow to build to climaxes, pauses and renewals of tensions.
Pintauro manages to leaven his play with humor while
also building to miniclimaxes and to one big, cathartic climax near the end. It is an
interesting, intelligent play, and the characters ring true.
Some characters (the actor, for instance) are still in
denial and have to be bullied or coaxed into accepting the truth about themselves.
However, "Medusa" is never preachy and is generally bereft of ideological
messages, prefering to emphasize the humanity of its characters, their grumpiness,
kindness, selfishness, wit and capacity or lack of it for empathy and compassion.
The language is definitely rough, and some of the
anatomical references especially by the loutish Alan (well played by Camie Lind) might
offend some.
Impressive among the cast are Emily Jane Moore as
Nairobi, the speech-impaired drug user; James Laurent as the actor; Marty Magnuson,
cheerful and flamboyant; Dawn Josoff as the snooty blonde; Michael Pujado as the engaging
Hispanic; Brenda Kelley as a religiously serious woman; Bill Bohannon as Doug; Lauren
Pieper as the teen-ager; and Sherrnan Bass as Larry..
With its group dynamics and frank language, this is
defmitely a play for adults. |
