Toby Mulford, Sarah Pretz, Catherine Deadman and Julia Klavans in Absolutely! {perhaps}. Photo: Stan Barouh
The Internet is frequently accused of creating a generation of armchair detectives, often with disastrous results. Our human curiosity won’t allow us to let a mystery go unsolved, whether that results in tracking down a Jurassic Park fan, accusing innocent people of being the Boston bombers, or attempting to solve crimes with meticulous dollhouse recreations. Of course, access to the Internet hasn’t caused this addiction to speculation, merely facilitated it. Constellation Theatre’s 1950s-infused adaptation of Pirandello’s 1917 Cosi e (si vi pare) shows that this aspect of human nature has been with us a long, long time.
Try this mystery on for size, gang: An elderly widow (Kimberly Schraf) moves to a small Italian town and is seen making long, arduous, daily trips to the courtyard of a building on the other side of town. After lingering for some time, and without being seen talking to anyone, she makes the long journey back home.
This puzzle proves too enticing for the small town gossips at the heart of Absolutely! {perhaps} to resist. The Agazi family’s sleek and sparkling living room (designed as an obvious love letter to Mad Men by A.J. Guban) plays host to an ever-increasing crowd of townsfolk, eventually drawing in even the mayor (Julie Garner) to first speculate on the mystery, and then go to increasingly desperate lengths to draw the truth out of the elderly Signora Frola or her (maybe!) son-in-law Signor Ponza (Michael Glenn).
Though the set and snazzy costumes (take note of the cleverly matching pattern designs dreamed up by costume designer Kendra Rai for the Sirellis) are all distinctly Mad Men, the running gags, the increasingly muddled story, and the cast’s hilariously exasperated search for an explanation are more strongly reminiscent of Clue. Consider the ongoing joke where no one can remember the name of the tiny, unassuming Signora Cini (Teresa Spencer), despite her repeated but always-polite reminders. In what I can only hope is a terrific meta-joke, Spencer’s artist bio in the program is separated from the entire rest of the cast by a full page ad. And a subtle but effective sight gag where the butler—or maybe he’s the plumber? Or gardener?— enters at regular intervals dressed in entirely different and unremarked-upon costumes is a gag straight out of an ’80s comedy.
Be warned, however: all of this build up is essentially (and intentionally) a very long joke without a punchline. Pirandello, better known for the later and considerably more experimental Six Characters in Search of an Author, ends the play with exactly the level of ambiguity that, to be fair, is alluded to right in the title. Despite the deeply amusing performances that director Allison Arkell Stockman has accomplished with her cast, the proto-Absurd source material is stubbornly concerned with making a point. The point— as the flamboyant, braying Lamberto Laudisi (Ashley Ivey) constantly reminds the other characters and the audience— is that the “truth” of any one person can never be fully known by anyone else.
If the frustration of reading “The Lady, or the Tiger?” in high school still sets your teeth on edge, this play may give you a touch of PTSD flashbacks. Still, if you can brace yourself for a punchline that never shows up, the two-hour long joke being offered by Constellation is pretty enough to look at and funny enough to be well worth your time. Definitely. Maybe.
Absolutely! {perhaps} runs at the Source through November 9. Tickets, $20-45, are available here.
