NAOMI IN THE LIVING ROOM and
Those who saw Mary-Arrchie’s production of Peter Hedges’s Imagining Brad a few years ago may recall a grotesque little fable populated by grotesque little characters–entertaining, to be sure, and heartbreaking in their vulnerability but ultimately more a product of the actors’ and director’s interpretation than of the playwright’s invention. The We’re From Boston Theatre Company, however, eschews presentational gimmickry to deliver a stark, simple vignette that reveals Hedges as a writer of surprising craft and subtlety.
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Dana Sue’s marriage is apparently everything a woman could want: Alex does all the chores, showers her with sumptuous gifts, makes love like a prize stallion, and phones her from his hotel room when he’s away on business to read her “sexy passages” from the Bible. Valerie’s husband, Brad, doesn’t work, refuses to be photographed even for their wedding picture, and never leaves the house–yet Valerie insists, with a quiet confidence that contrasts sharply with Dana Sue’s incessant boasting, that her marriage too is happy. As the friendship between the two women deepens, Dana Sue’s curiosity about these eccentric newlyweds turns to horror at the circumstances behind Brad’s devotion, then to envy as she’s forced to face the hypocrisy of her own “perfect” marriage. Valerie also has her moments of doubt but emerges convinced that she made the right choice of husband.
Sharing the curtain-raising duties on the night I attended was special guest Betsy Salkind, a stand-up who has plans to decimate the cockroach population by introducing drugs to their community (“It didn’t work–they were paying off the cats”), recently converted to Christian Science (“It was the only health care plan I could afford”), and does a remarkable imitation of a New York squirrel.
