Herland
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Greenway Arts Alliance
Through June 23
It’s not often we have a story that spotlights a friendship between an elderly woman and a much younger one. It’s a welcome notion, and the primary draw for playwright Grace McLeod’s Herland, a National New Play Network rolling world premiere, directed by Tiffany Moon at Greenway Court Theatre.
The setting is a garage adjacent to the home of septuagenarian Jean (Lisa Blake Richards) who lives alone now that her husband of umpteen years, Bob, has left her for a younger woman. Bob had been a musician whose band had once opened for Bruce Springstein, and Jean had lived most of her life in her spouse’s shadow. Now, looking to the future, she’s planning to convert the house she once shared with him into a retirement residence for herself and her two longtime friends, Louse (Judith Scarpone) and Terry (Laura James). For assistance, she’s advertised for an intern, and her ad has been answered by Natalie (Gladys Bautista), a recent high school graduate with excellent grades and a long list of extracurricular activities to her credit.
As an informal administrative assistant, Natalie helps with the tech stuff and serves tea and alcoholic drinks to Jean and her friends. On her own initiative, she gives the older ladies a lecture about the history of utopian communities, and tells them about Herland, a 1915 novel by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, about an isolated community made up entirely of women able to procreate via parthenogenesis, without the participation of men.
The setup paves the way for Natalie to forge a relationship with each of the women separately. She’s especially interested in getting to know Terry, who came out late in life, after decades of marriage. Terry’s experience snares Natalie’s attention because she suspects (but at 18 isn’t entirely sure) that she may be gay as well, and she’s looking to this older woman to help her navigate these waters.
A meritorious effort, Herland strives to celebrate women of all ages in an entertaining, insightful way — but it doesn’t quite achieve that aim. McLeod, a young playwright in her 20s, draws Jean and Louise as ditsy, naïve and eccentric, each shut out in her own way from mainstream 21st century culture (albeit overcoming their self-doubts by the end with Natalie’s input). But some of these characters’ foibles — Jean’s harping on home owner’s insurance or Louise’s amazed delight with an online program teaching her how to become an assured independent woman — appears cutesy and contrived, an effect the performances underscore. Too much of the older women’s interchange resembles an 80s episode of Golden Girls, which is fine if you’re after a reminiscent chuckle in front of the TV but comes off as patronizing when touted as part of a meaningful feminist narrative in 2019.
Midway through, McLeod abruptly switches gears. She introduces a new scenario and another character: Becca (the very fine Victoria Ortiz), a recent acquaintance whom Natalie (apparently now back from a year at college) invites to the garage for a drink and well — who knows what could happen? As Becca, Ortiz reflects integrity and patience with others born of her character’s own hard knocks, and the scene succeeds as a true-to-life encounter between two people on a first date who are attracted but unsure how to proceed, although Natalie’s coyness at revealing whose space they’re using registers as another contrived effort at comedy.
The other notable performance is from James as the reserved and unflappable Terry, and a dispenser of sound counsel. Bautista fulfills the playwright’s description of her role as a “tightly wound” high school over-achiever, but the character would be more interesting if this performer developed a few more individualizing quirks that would make her performance more personal and precise.
Rene O. Parras Jr.’s set is a hodgepodge that, like many things about this play’s construction, seems counterfeit in its assemblage.
This applies to the play’s launching premise as well. Although a dramedy about intergenerational bonding is a good idea, it’s hard to see how Natalie would find an internship (duties mostly unspecified) in Jean’s garage that’s worth her time. And a breakout dream sequence where all five characters take part in emulating a performance of “Born to Run” makes for a change of pace but it’s a little spurious as a bridge between the senior citizen scenario and the one that takes place between the two younger women.
Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Ave., West Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; Sat., Jun. 15, 3 p.m.; through Jun. 23. https://www.greenwayartsalliance.org. Running time: approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
