Aah, to be in your 40’s and meet your 13-year-old soul-mate.
It is an issue at the center of “Green Whales,” finishing up its run this weekend at San Jose’s Renegade Theater Experiment. And while the production does a serviceable job at exploring the varying issues that come with such a complicated issue, it doesn’t ever really explore the truer motivations of its principals.
Ian (Keith C. Marshall) is down in the dumps. His wife has been carrying on with a long affair, which just confirms that older women with their older women problems and attitudes just suck. Ian is not interested in carrying on with one of them. What he desires is innocence, truth, something he can only find in a teenage girl.
This is where Joanna (Sara Luna) comes in. The alcoholic sister of Karen (Gloria McDonald), she herself in a horrid relationship, is looking out for the sis. Karen’s problem is that she looks like she’s 13. Turners Syndrome keeps the men away, and as a 38-year-old Chicago professor, Karen is looking for a man that won’t feel creeped out by looking at her. And when Joanna’s police officer boyfriend Ray (Michael Wayne Rice) mentions he took a man to the station who was watching girls play soccer a little too intently, Joanna’s inebriated mind has a plan. Time to send her sister off to the Coffee Pot, where Pedophile Prince Charming will be taking in some French roast.
Even though the show has a dark tone, and features moments that are just downright uncomfortable, it is in fact a comedy, and gave some good laughs. Such as these morsels of trivia presented by Ian:
“You know, 40-year-old single women have a better chance of being in a terrorist attack than getting married.” Or, “Donkeys kill more people every year than plane crashes.”
It is difficult to discuss this show without discussing the varying intellect of the characters. On cultural levels, Ian and Karen speak a similar language, first engaging each other over the brilliance of the philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre. But when it comes to affairs of the heart, both stumble into an absurd comedy of errors. With Gloria’s insistence of not revealing her true age, and Ian’s insistence of pushing forward with this reckless behavior, both characters do their part to alienate any normal-thinking human.
And this says nothing for the other two characters in the play. Joanna and Ray have an entirely different set of circumstances to deal with, with Ray’s lack of any desire to engage in an adult relationship and Joanna’s passion for the bottle.
Where the show delves more into the problematic is in playwright Lia Romeo’s script. What doesn’t work nearly as well is the fact that issues seem to be resolved with too much sunshine and speed. It is almost if the complicated nature of the subject matter was not handled with nearly the same skill in the writing that is deemed necessary.
For example, without giving too much away, the big resolution between Ian and Gloria, which is a critical conversation, takes place entirely too quickly. Not long after that conversation ends, it goes into some cutesy dialogue that leaves the audience wholly unsatisfied. It is a moment like this one that makes the show feel like it is still in the development phase. And even though the flow of the story was handled nicely by Ana-Catrina Buchser’s direction, there wasn’t much that could have been done with the material in some very key moments.
Both McDonald and Marshall created a nice chemistry together on stage. Marshall is a Renegade veteran, and handles quirky character roles with gusto. The youthful McDonald handled her sublime stretch with a very nice smoothness worthy of a veteran performer. And Rice seems to have quite a grasp on the creepy cop genre, based on the fact that the last piece I saw him in was Renegade’s “Killer Joe.”
What is most satisfying is that Renegade never shies away from a difficult subject, especially one that doesn’t always make an audience comfortable. And I am good with that. Theatre is all about telling every story, not just stories that makes us feel completely at ease. With some more shaping, “Green Whales” can be a piece that inspires a much more deep and honest conversation. It just isn’t that piece yet.
EXAMINE IT FOR YOURSELF
Renegade Theater Experiment presents the West Coast premiere of “Green Whales”
Written by Lia Romeo
Directed by Ana-Catrina Buchser
The word: Some nice performances, yet a show that still is a few rewrites away from greatness
Through Feb. 25th
Historic Hoover Theater
1635 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95126
For tickets, call (408) 493-0783 or visit the official website.
David is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Email him at dchavez04@att.net
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