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Regional Reviews: New Jersey Tortured Lives and Farcical Comedy Blend Seamlessly Also see Bob's review of Swimming at the Ritz
Each of the three acts is set on one of three consecutive Christmas eves in the kitchen of one of three married couples in a small English town. The first kitchen is that of Sidney and Jane Hopcraft. Hopcraft, a tradesman, is the proprietor of a small market and is single mindedly focused on expanding his business interests. To this end, he has invited over high-born banker Ronald Brewster-Wright and his wife Marion, and bohemian architect Geoffrey Jackson and his wife Eva. While farcical complications provide us with genuine laughter, Sidney, concerned only with making a good impression on his smug betters, subjects his ditzy, well intentioned wife Jane to humiliating disdain and disinterest. Over the course of the play, the driven, resentful Sidney will achieve success, while the self-satisfied, less competent, less focused Geoffrey and Ronald slip and become reliant on him Although the listed settings for each act are "Last Christmas," "This Christmas," and "Next Christmas," the personalities and relationships depicted clearly are more reflective of roles and behaviors of the early 1970s (when Absurd Person Singular was written and originally produced) than those of today. The complaisant dolts of the British upper class are depicted as confused by the reality that they no longer can automatically retain their privileges over shrewder, determined-to-thrive members of the lower classes. Their wives, representative of a broad range of classes, are shown as content to be dependant and subservient to their bread-winning husbands. While each of the husbands is described in one published listing of the play's characters by his position ("tradesman," "architect," and "banker"), the women are simply "his (browbeaten) wife," "his (suicidal) wife" and "his (alcoholic) wife." The maladjustments of these women are depicted as being the direct result of the poor behavior of their husbands. Eva's loopy, repeated attempts at suicide which escape the notice of her philandering husband provide the humor throughout most of the second act. Among the wives, it is only Eva who overcomes her subjugation. She does so by a combination of ceasing to care about Geoffrey and causing him to end his philandering for fear of her committing suicide. Under the direction of actress Jessica Stone, who has been largely devoting her career to directing in recent years, the ensemble largely honors the admonition of author Alan Ayckbourn to enact their roles with serious earnestness while relying on the play and its required physical action to provide the humor. Brooks Ashmanskas' Sidney is both the most bumptiously humorous and wantonly cruel of the husbands; Scott Drummond's Geoffrey seems blindsided by the emotions of a wife who once was disposed to an open marriage; and Michael Cumpsty's Ronald, the most sympathetic of the husbands, is the dullest and most puzzled of twilight aristocrats. Melissa van der Schyff's chirpy and blissfully unaware Jane provides the full measure of the play's most farcically amusing role. Without missing a beat, van der Schyff chills us when her Jane's extreme naïveté leads her to participate in the cruel behavior of her husband. Mary Birdsong amusingly and delightedly conveys the curdled humor of an alcoholic matron whose airs of superiority have lost their conviction. Liz Wisan performs ably as the suicidal Eva. Still, I did not find Eva's extended series of suicide attempts very amusing. Heightened sensibilities and the changing status of women seem to have reduced this play's level of hilarity. In any event, Absurd Person Singular remains a very entertaining, sharp and insightful serious play with a considerable laugh quotient. The setting by Charlie Corcoran features three fully designed kitchens on a large revolve which rotates at the beginning of each act as the action moves to a new kitchen. Absurd Person Singular continues performances (Evenings: Wednesday 7 pm/ Thursday - Saturday 8 pm/ Matinees: Wednesday 1 pm/ Saturday - Sunday 3 pm) through February 1, 2015 at the Two River Theater, Joan and Robert Rechnitz Theatre, 21 Bridge Ave., Red Bank 07701; Box Office: 732-345-1400 / online: www.trtc.org Absurd Person Singular by Alan Ayckbourn; directed by Jessica Stone Cast
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