Production photo of Princess Maraget via Thelma Theater
By DCist Contributor Jonelle Walker
For its entry into the Women’s Voices Theater Festival, Capital Fringe is hosting Thelma Theatre’s repertory of two world premieres: Whenever You’re Near Me (I Feel Sick) and Princess Margaret. Thelma makes it their mission to produce works by female playwrights all year, so it’s no surprise that they would participate in this historic celebration of women in theater. What is surprising is the shockingly backward way female characters are portrayed throughout both plays.
With the Women’s Voices Theater Festival in full swing, the debate over gender parity inspires questions about the ethics of criticism: is it acceptable for women to write less-than-feminist plays? Can female practitioners perpetuate sexism under the banner of equality? The answers are not easy to parse out, but Thelma’s productions give us some material to chew on in the meantime.
The first of the productions is the intriguingly-titled Whenever You’re Near Me (I Feel Sick) by playwright and director Jennie Berman Eng. The play follows longtime friends Wendy (Ariana Almajan) and Andre (Ricardo Frederick Evans) through a decade of flirtation and longing while each are married to other people. It begins with Andre announcing his engagement to Sarah (Marta Kotzian) and explaining to Wendy that his fiancée is not too keen on their friendship, which is why they now have to move to Austin. What follows is a series of short, comedic scenes spanning the aforementioned decade as both Wendy and Andre grapple with getting settled and letting go of each other.
Whenever You’re Near Me has a number of shortfalls, but it benefits from the strong performances of leading actors Almajan and Evans. They have electric chemistry and do well with Eng’s banter-heavy dialogue. Both also have a strong sense for comedy: Almajan utilizes a well-tuned deadpan delivery throughout and Evans has a drunk scene that is possibly the most affecting in the show. Supporting actors Kotzian and Taunya Ferguson (playing a number of side characters; more on that in a moment) similarly do their best with the material they are given.
Production photo of “Whenever You’re Near Me (I Feel Sick)” via Thelma Theatre
The weaknesses of the production, unfortunately, far outshine the good performances. Eng, serving dual roles as playwright and director, makes missteps as both. The direction is lackluster; pacing for each scene is often too quick or drags unbearably; a projection element disappears midway through the performance; and the staging frequently makes it impossible to see actors’ faces, even while sitting in the front row.
As for the writing, Eng’s dialogue is snappy and truly funny, but the play as a whole is structured for the camera with short scenes and a wide range of locations. Her greatest strength lies in writing for Wendy and Andre. One moment near the end, in fact, is so moving that audience members might be heard audibly gasping. Her writing for Sarah, Andre’s long suffering wife, and the various babysitters and waitresses played by Taunya Ferguson leave much to be desired. All of the secondary characters are drawn with broad strokes and used as foils for Wendy. This technique unfortunately pits Sarah in particular against Wendy in a classic shrewish wife versus manic pixie dream girl face off. Not exactly the most empowering material for a festival celebrating the artistic heft of women.
Far from the contemporary realm of Eng’s manic pixie dream girl, the second play in the repertory— Patricia Connelly’s Princess Margaret — transports the audience back to 1969 in upstate New York. The titular Margaret (Allison Frisch), the daughter of a troubled waitress (Rebecca Hausman), is caught stealing milk from a convent and punished with a free Catholic school education. Sister Anastasia (Elizabeth Bruce) takes her under her wing and Sister Helen (Taunya Ferguson) tries to restrain herself from walloping the girl after every perceived slight.
If the plot sounds a bit bizarre, that’s because it is. Ultimately, the climax of the play (spoilers!) is brought on by Margaret having lice and the subsequent game of blame hot potato that the adults in her life play. There is discussion of the diocesan office planning to close the Catholic school because it is in a bad neighborhood, but that more intriguing plotline remains unresolved by play’s end. The finale instead is an uncharacteristically expressionist moment which almost makes a point about Catholicism and redemption, but doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Thankfully, much like Whenever You’re Near Me, Princess Margaret has a few strong performances. Ferguson is a ferocious Sister Helen, filling up the space with her powerful voice. On either end of the spectrum, Bruce is a truly loveable Sister Anastasia and Hausman as Felicia, Margaret’s mother, attacks her role with vigor despite its limited flavors of piss and vinegar. Felicia, it should be noted, is constantly undercut by all other characters (including her daughter) for having a relationship with a married man and being a “bar maid;” again, not the most enlightened approach to portraying a single, working class mother.
Direction for Princess Margaret is markedly stronger than Whenever You’re Near Me, with a few nice moments of staging particularly at the top of show and in scenes between Margaret and Felicia. Director Robert Michael Oliver should get a few raps across the knuckles, however, for needless transitions and indecipherable casting choices. Why, for example, did a stagehand need to appear under cover of darkness to move a rehearsal cube six inches upstage? Further, why is our child protagonist Margaret, at a mature 11 years old, two inches taller and possibly even a year older than her mother?
During this time of reflection on the roles of women in contemporary American theater, it is disappointing to see the representative roles Thelma Theatre offers in their current repertory. In Whenever You’re Near Me (I Feel Sick), women are presented with three options: the manic pixie dream girl, the nagging wife, or any one of many nameless service workers. In Princess Margaret: a nun, a sexually promiscuous barmaid, or a girl with so little agency she can’t even wash her own hair.
These productions provide an opportunity to draw attention to the fact that there is far more to gender equity than producing works by women. Theater practitioners must consider the importance of how we tell women’s stories, as well.
Whenever You’re Near Me (I Feel Sick) and Princess Margaret both run through October 4 at Capital Fringe’s Trinidad Theater. Tickets for both shows are available online here.
