AND BABY MAKES SEVEN
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Anna and Ruth are lovers. They share a New York loft with their gay friend Peter. Some time ago Anna decided she wanted to have a baby. Since that’s one thing Ruth can’t give her, Anna asks Peter to do the job. Peter obliges, and when the play opens Anna is nine months pregnant.
The play fits nicely into Footsteps Theatre’s mission to expand our vision about the possibilities of womanhood. As a sort of homosexual Three’s Company, it’s liberating enough in its outlook. But Vogel doesn’t leave the premise at that. Anna and Ruth also have a rich fantasy life. Ruth frequently becomes Henri, a character inspired by the little French boy in the film The Red Balloon. Anna becomes Cecil, a precocious young geophysicist-to-be. The two boys have a wily dog named Orphan that they found abandoned in the Port Authority bus terminal; it’s played by Ruth.
Elizabeth Acerra, Jean Adamak, and David Pease create warm, witty, bold, daring, even zany characters, but they never get beyond that. Their presence onstage is enjoyable, but ultimately unsatisfying.
