New Rep’s final
main stage show of the season (running through May 25th) is Eric
Overmyer’s ON THE VERGE, the l985 play that put him on the map. (They have two
more in partnership with the Boston
Center for American
Performance @ B.U.’s Studio 210.)
I’m afraid I
think ON THE VERGE is dated, dense—and
awfully long, at that. Overmyer’s references may have been topical at the time
but now they’re passé. Audiences under 65 have no clue about Burma Shave signage
or what Norman Mailer’s first novel was. To misquote the peripatetic explorers,
it’s “extremely hard to hack your way through this thicket” of repetitive
verbiage.
New Rep’s press
material describes the play as if it has a feminist slant: Three Victorian
women “escape the conventions of their society…by embarking on a safari through
time that leads them to the possibilities of liberation, empowerment and
beyond.” I don’t think so. One of the women (Christine Hamel) ends up
sacrificing all she’s learned for a motorcyclist and a surf board. Another
(Adrianne Krstansky) gives up her scientific travels for a gambler (“1955 suits
me, she gushes”). The third (Paula Langton) carries on, to explore her newfound
“voluptuousness.” Betty Friedan is flipping in her grave.
It’s the third
who channels landmarks of the future like “off shore drilling, venture
capitalism and no fault insurance.” No mention of the women’s vote, civil
rights, feminism or the anti-war movement. Only the gambler has heard of
Satchel Paige. Since most of the female characters don’t change much, except to
be acted upon, it’s the male (Benjamin Evett) in the cast who has the juicy
roles of the cannibal (You are what you eat), the Yeti, Mr. Coffee and more. We
can’t wait for Evett to reappear.
Overmyer starts
out on the right track, telling us that “civilizing the world is women’s
mission,” but he loses his way by settling for 1955. I’ve been there. It wasn’t
so great for anyone who wasn’t white or male. But, as one of the characters
says in disagreement, maybe it’s “only me.”