Sara Barmada and Marianne Jaggard (Photo, courtesy of 1510 Las Palmas)
Reviewed by Molly McLean
1510 Las Palmas at The Whitefire Theatre
Through Feb. 1
Sara Barmada and Marianne Jaggard (Photo, courtesy of 1510 Las Palmas)
A new theater company, 1510 Las Palmas, debuts with Jane Anderson’s funny and engaging 1990 drama The Baby Dance. The play shows the tense arrival of a corporate woman descending upon a trailer park in Louisiana. She visits her prospective adopted child, still in the uterus of a woman already besieged with children and stress from poverty. The two women try to find common ground and create a healthy relationship. Matters complicate when their husbands arrive. The adoptive and biological couples enter into a “dance” to see who will raise the child and how. A battle of the husbands’ wills dominates the play, as the wives are at their whims.
The play itself is an engaging piece of ethnography between the way poor and rich people think about raising children. This production under the direction of Xavier Daniels lags in energy but has many successful moments.
The most interesting dynamic of the play is the relationship between the Alabama couple; Wanda (Marianne Jaggard) and Al (Andy Davoli) hold a lot of love for each other. They both have relaxed, sure voices and clear physicality for their characters.
From the upper economic tier, Richard (James Jovanovich) and Rachel (Sara Barmada) never share that same love onstage. They look past one another. But both actors exemplify the flustered, frenetic energy that gives justification to the tragic end of the play. Briana Aceti plays the lawyer arbitrating the adoption with apt poise. Jovanovic, as the city slicker husband, convinces his wife with verbal force that feels as violent as that of the other husband’s shoves.
Some of the transitions are slow. For example, at the beginning of the play, an actor exits the theater building and walks all the way around to enter from the audience, which drains the energy going into the next scene. However, setting the edge of the trailer to be the lip of the stage makes the scenes where characters talk to their neighbors visceral, as the actors yell at the audience.
The Baby Dance shows with heart, patience, and compassion the danger of giving up all agency to men in domestic matters.
The Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Open Fri., Jan. 16; Fri., 8 pm, Sat.,9 pm, Sun., 7 pm; thru Feb. 1.https://1510laspalmas.yapsody.com/event/index/854405/The-Baby-Dance-by-Jane-Anderson. Running time 2 hours.
