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Past Reviews Regional Reviews: Seattle Dark Humor Fuels The Comparables If you long for the kind of melodrama between women that has tickled audiences ever since Clare Boothe Luce coined the phrase "Jungle Red," then Laura Schellhardt's prickly, witty, and even wise play The Comparables should prove just the tonic. Braden Abraham's savvy and swift-paced staging provides an ample showcase for Schellhardt's battle of the big real estate broads, and he has cast it wisely and well with three actresses who boldly show the cracks in the armor worn by the modern day businesswoman.
Bette (Linda Gehringer) is the big boss of a very prosperous urban real estate firm, about to go viral with her own reality show, and playing puppet master with two very different younger women who aspire to follow in (if not knock her off) her high-heeled footsteps. Monica (Cheyenne Casebier) is the office's veteran lackey, always Bette's right hand gal, and she has hung in through time, now feeling that she is worthy of a step-up in the company, versus the smattering of appreciation, both financial and personal, she has been shown during her tenure. Enter Iris (Keiko Green) who might more appropriately have been named Nightshade. She has come for an interview with Bette, which Monica tries to commandeer with a pre-interview designed to send her packing. It quickly becomes clear the sexy, bodacious, schemer wants to takeover the whole joint, and eat her dust! Surprisingly, Monica and Linda seem to grow on each other, and feed off of being co-conspirators in dethroning Queen Bette. But when Monica panics over the potential loss of a big client, she makes a life and career altering mistake. Or is it maybe the best thing that could happen to her? Schellhardt gives Monica the closest thing to something resembling a human heart on the stage, but all three characters make riveting. company. Casebier's Monica is sort of a Mary Richards who didn't quite make it after all. At first she seems outmatched in her dealings with the crafty and manipulative Iris, but Casebier gives her a bit of steel at her core that makes her a player rather than a pushover. Green risks being almost entirely unsympathetic as the crafty Iris, gleefully spinning web after web of betrayal. And Gehringer is a commanding and compelling presence as Bette, someone who fought the wars of the early women's movement, and now reigns over her own corporate monarchy, on the alert that those interested in usurping her power base are on the prowl. The trio mesh well as an ensemble, and playwright Schellhardt gives them an ample array or verbal weaponry with which to do battle. The fourth "star" of the production is the huge set design by Carey Wong, which pretty much looks like someone stole an entire four-star corporate office suite and transferred it to the stage of the Rep. Bette's vast interior office (complete with blackout window curtains) sits upstage, with most of the actions taking place in the outer office area where Monica and Iris toil. L.B. Morse's lighting makes things shimmer with that distinct, cold sheen so prevalent in such corporate domains, and Frances Kenny's costumes capture the various ranks and personalities of each lady, in a business setting where the higher the heel the better. Kudos as well to fight director Rick Sordelet, for his all stops out staging of Iris and Monica's knock down drag out. My companion and I both wanted the play to go on longer than its 85 intermission-less minutes, which is a good sign. For a world premiere it's in damn good shape, and I can see The Comparables having a long and lustrous life in regional theatres, Broadway, and ultimately film or HBO.
The Comparables runs through March 29th, 2015, in the Bagley Wright at the Seattle Repertory Theatre in Seattle Center. For tickets or information contact the SRT box office at 206-443-2222 or visit them online at www.seattlerep.org.
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