A work unfinishing: Weekly Margin 2023, W10: LOVE, Becomes a Woman, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window

Monday, March 6, 2023

Weekly Margin 2023, W10: LOVE, Becomes a Woman, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window

2/28/23: LOVE

What: Park Avenue Armory hosts Alexander Zeldin's semi-immersive examination of the people who fall through the cracks. Not unhoused but homeless, these individuals live in cramped rooms in shelters where dignity and privacy are in short supply.

And? The semi-immersive element--having a section of the audience sit in risers and scattered chairs in the space of the common area of the shelter--achieves several effects. One, it's a reminder that many of us are only one or two lost paychecks away from losing homes ourselves. Two, it contributes to the lack of privacy for the characters in the play, surrounded as they are by silent witnesses. Three, for those of us on the outside of this immersive element, the uncomfortably voyeuristic aspect is increased tenfold. There's a heartbreaking and deliberate lack of closure to this play. No one here knows when they'll be placed in real housing, when they can escape the indignity of having to beg for their turn in the restroom, of confronting someone who may have taken their dishes, of having to clean up someone else's mess with the very last of their paper towel roll. It's terrible. It's humiliating. But then why is the play called LOVE? Because in and among these unsolved despairs, there is space for a man gently washing his mum's hair. For a couple to reaffirm their love for each other and their unborn child. For a Sudanese immigrant and a Syrian refugee to connect over a shared language. It's not much, it's barely enough, but it can keep them going til tomorrow, and the day after.

Janet Etuk, Oliver Finnegan, Alex Austin, and Amelia Finnegan as Emma,
Jason, Dean, and Paige. Photo by Stephanie Berger.

3/04/23: Becomes a Woman

What: Mint Theater presents an early play by Betty Smith, best known for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, about a 1920s shopgirl who learns a lesson in who is worthy of her trust and love.

And? I'm pretty mixed on this. On the one hand, it's kind of remarkable to see a play this old lay waste so defiantly to the idea that a woman needs a man's approval in order to have happiness or self-worth (and to the idea that the only way for a woman to have a character arc is through sexual trauma). On the other hand, it's infuriating that it's been a century and plenty of people still don't believe that. On the other other hand, the writing in act one was so presentational and packed to the gills with exposition, I was irritated the entire time. Things get much heavier in the second two acts, and it feels like a different play; this is especially jarring after how frothy the first act was. But oh well. Part of the point of the Mint is we see these rarely- (or never-) produced plays from an earlier era and see what there is to excavate from them. Emma Pfitzer Price is striking as the shopgirl in question, ably building Francie's arc from scared colt to defiant woman willing to do what she needs to stay alive and autonomous. Also a standout in a smaller role is a favorite on this blog, Jason O'Connell as the affable but awkward Max.