RUBBER DOLLY
Rubber Dolly, being given its U.S. premiere by M.P.D. Productions, doesn’t try to excuse Fern’s actions, but neither does it make her out to be a monster. Flashbacks and monologues based on Fern’s and her sister Marie’s memories paint a thorough portrait of a likable but stunted woman. From the opening monologue we see Fern’s love for life. Recalling a time in her childhood when her mother taunted her cruelly, Fern quickly gets past the pain to lovingly recall enchanted childhood times–taking dolls on camping trips and meeting her best friend on a train. Later, as a reckless 15-year-old, she breezes into Marie’s Toronto apartment filled with vague hopes for a better life, away from her cold mother.
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Clay Snider’s set effectively combines realism and fantasy. A table and chairs represent a universal kitchen in which Marie folds laundry and battles with her willful sister and Fern chases her disobedient son and flirts/fights with her boyfriends. To the left of the kitchen area a single chair stands alone, and here Marie and Fern deliver their monologues, as if giving testimony to a psychologist, priest, or judge. A more ethereal world exists behind a black screen that’s alternately transparent and opaque. Since Joey is its only inhabitant, this netherworld is a chilling harbinger of his death.
