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Regional Reviews: New Jersey Rapture, Blister, Burn Also see Bob's reviews of Tar Beach, Lost in History and Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like Mine
It is summer and Catherine, a successful New York City college sociology professor on sabbatical and bestselling author, has returned to the New England college town where she was raised to care for her ailing mother. Living next door to her mother are Don, who is ensconced as a dean at a third rate local college, his stay at home wife Gwen, and their two children. Catherine, Don, and Gwen were close friends at grad school. In fact, Catherine and Don appeared on track to be married then. However, when the smart and ambitious Catherine went off to London on a prestigious scholarship, Don married the "I want to get married and stay home and raise a family" oriented Gwen. Don facilitates the hiring of the overqualified Catherine to teach at the local college. A summer session seminar on the effect of the women's movement on popular culture based on her book is added to the schedule for her to teach. The only students who sign up for the course are Gwen and Avery, a dissatisfied and rebellious pre-med student dropout who is dissatisfied with the limitations facing females who had baby sat for Don and Gwen. The smart, but lazy Don (there are "too many white guys wanting to teach American Lit") is unhappy with the nagging of the dissatisfied Gwen. Catherine and Don, the one and only love of her life who got away, rekindle their romance. She is ready to overlook Don's employment of Internet porn as well as his fondness for marijuana which the rankled Gwen brings to her attention. It is not too long before they decide that they want to live together, and convince Gwen that she would be happier moving to Manhattan where she could live in Catherine's apartment, go to school on Catherine's dime and jump start a career. Avery and Catherine bond. Both she and Alice encourage and help Catherine in her decision to steal Don back from Gwen. Some of the most thought-provoking and funniest scenes in the play are the seminar sessions which include a discussion of Catherine's thesis that slasher films were an angry reaction to the women's movement. Don believes that such analyses of popular culture are fraudulent. By now, the reader is likely to ask, "isn't there a great deal of contrivance here? Well, there certainly is, but it all goes down quite smoothly and undisturbingly because of the beguiling script and production. The laugh-filled soap opera style plot receives the blithe, buoyant performances which it requires under the bright, sure-handed direction of David Christopher. Laura Ekstrand conveys the doubts and dissatisfactions of Catherine while displaying her intelligence, winningly perky briskness, and warmth. Jessica O'Hara-Baker appropriately portrays Avery as a brasher, younger, and more contemporary version of Catherine. Noreen Farley wittily reminds us of the values, especially some of which surely still have relevance for many women today, that preceded Betty Friedan. Nicole Callender is a pleasing and naturalistic Gwen, never detracting from a pivotal role which would suffer from embellishment. Harry Patrick Christian is so completely the true picture of what Don has become that it is difficult to visualize the memory of the young Don that Catherine sees in him (actually quite a feat for the charismatic Christian). This Rapture, Blister, Burn delightfully demonstrates that whatever the social mores of any era, becoming an adult is a difficult process for both men and women. It even warns against ignoring the wisdom that the maligned Phyllis Schlafly brought to the table. Rapture, Blister, Burn continues performances (Evenings: Thursday - Saturday 8 pm/ Matinees: Sunday 2 pm) through May 3, 2015, at the Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre at the Oakes Center, 120 Morris Avenue, Summit, New Jersey 07901; Box Office: 908-514-9654; 800-838-3006 (Brown Paper Tickets)/ online: www.dreamcatcherrep.org. Rapture, Blister, Burn by Gina Gionfriddo; directed by David Christopher
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