| TEMPEST
IN JERSEY: “HURRICANE DIANE” AT TWO RIVER THEATER
Through Feb 12 at Two River Theater, Bridge
Ave., Red Bank NJ.
ednesdays at 1 & 7PM; Thurs & Fri at 8; Sat at 3 & 8;
Sun at 3PM. For tickets ($50-$70): 732-345-1400 or online at www.trtc.org
(Note: Two River offers $20 tickets to patrons under age 30 for
any performance, subject to availability.)
Reviewed by Philip Dorian February 2017
If you wished to come back as a Greco-Roman God, you could do far
worse than to opt for Dionysus (Greek), also known as Bacchus (Roman),
the god of wine, fertility and agriculture as well as the patron god
of the Greek stage. He was also able to bring a dead person back to
life, which would make you a sought-after dinner-party guest (or a
shunned one). You’d also have a couple of plays written about
you: “the Bacchae,” written by Greek dramatist Euripides
in the BCE year 407, and Madeleine George’s “Hurricane
Diane,” which premiered last week at Two River Theater in Red
Bank NJ. (That’s 2424 years later, if you’re counting.)
Among other endeavors, Dionysus, fathered by Zeus (and an ill-fated
mom), headed a cult of wine-imbibing women who promoted the natural
cultivation of grapevines and other flora, an activity that, for reasons
best left to Ancient Historians, sometimes led to orgiastic ritualistic
displays.
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| Danielle Skraastad as Pam in "Hurricane
Diane" |
Why that history capsule, you ask? Because, after adjustments to time,
place and gender, that’s what happens in “Hurricane Diane,”
in which playwright George, to quote Two River’s own blurb,
“…turns the Greek god Dionysus into Diane (Becca Blackwell),
a lesbian separatist permaculture gardener from Vermont whose mission
is restoring the Earth to its natural state—and gathering acolytes…in
a tidy suburban cul-de-sac in New Jersey.” (The actor Blackwell
is an acknowledged trans individual who “exists between genders”
and who prefers the pronoun “they” to “he”
or “she.” Since they is playing a character identified
as female, we’ll refer to Diane as “she and “her,”
to the relief of our grammatical Word program.)
“I have returned,” Diane announces. “The god of
agriculture, wine and song; my time is now.” Well, not quite.
While she does eventually gather acolytes – three of four of
those NJ householders – her free-range vegetation (overgrowth
and paw-paw trees) is no match for middle-class landscaping (trimmed
lawns and a wrought-iron bench).
It’s not for lack of trying, and the four women she encounters
make Ms. George’s play an agreeable nnety-minute sit-through.
Sandy (Mia Barron) is a drug-company compliance officer who has rationalized
her products’ nasty side effects and who stands her ground against
Diane’s agricultural (and other) advances. Beth (Kate Wetherhead)
is a needy woman who succumbs to both of the seductions that Sandy
resists.
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| Becca Blackwell, left, and Kate Wetherhead in
"Hurricane Diane" |
Renee (Nikiya Mathis) writes for a traditional House and Garden type
magazine; her resistance to the Asimini Triloba (ahem, paw-paw) is
short-lived also. Fourth but not least is Pam Annunziata, who exemplifies
the Staten Island émigré to Jersey in appearance, attitude
and sharp-tongued retort, qualities that Danielle Skraastad grabs
hold of and runs with.
So-called ‘chemistry’ among actors is hard to define,
but I know it when I see it, and it is very much in evidence when
the four cul de sac neighbors are schmoozing with one another (on
designer Rachel Hauck’s efficient kitchen set). Eavesdropping
on their convos is a fly-on-the-wall experience, and while their husbands
do not appear in the flesh, their personalities and – oh, yeah
– their sex-frequency is an open book. The all-femme team of
playwright George, director Leigh Silverman and the actors are a formidable
sextet.
I am less enthusiastic about some of the play’s other elements.
Diane herself is less than dynamic; Blackwell plays her with a laconic,
condescending attitude. And the message, which I’ll summarize
as eco-conscious, isn’t made any clearer by its amorphous connection
to Dionysus. The frenzied display that parallels the Grecian rituals
goes on way too long, although the dystopian image that’s accomplished
in total blackness on the floor-level stage (Two River’s second
space) is impressive.
Ms. George is Two River Theater’s Playwright-in-Residence. This
is her second play to premier there; the first was “Seven Homeless
Mammoths Wander New England” in 2011. That intriguingly titled
play did not directly involve a Greco-Roman god, although one character
was pointedly named Andromeda. At six-year intervals that gives me
plenty of time to bone up on Virgil’s Aeneid.
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