White Marriage

Reviewed by Pauline Adamek

That director Ron Sossi decided to remount White Marriage, a play he first directed in 1975, might be an attempt to recapture the hit production for the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble that Sossi staged 35 years ago. In the here and now, however, the urgency of the play’s point is muted largely by Sossi’s own re-staging.

Polish poet, dramatist and writer Tadeusz Różewicz was one of the first generation of Polish writers born after their homeland regained its independence in 1918. A WWII resistance fighter and prominent member of the Polish avant-garde theater scene of the 1970s, Różewicz was very much a product of his artistically provocative times. White Marriage is, nonetheless, linear and accessible.

Examining a well-to-do extended family circle, the play focuses on the coming-of-age of a young girl who is making an uncertain transition to womanhood. The teenage girl, Bianca (Kate Dalton), shares many nighttime conversations with her more outgoing and precocious cousin, gluttonous Pauline (Emily Goss), with nothing — and nobody — to curb their over-active imaginations. While Bianca, at one point, relates a thrilling yet incomprehensible visitation by Saint Nicholas (actually an episode of molestation), Pauline laughs about the “secret games” their lecherous grandfather is keen to play with her, and proves a willing participant thanks to his bribes of chocolate and the sheer nonsense (at least to her) of these silly romps. Following the mildly traumatic onset of her menstrual cycle, Bianca, meanwhile, is hurtled towards marriage by the romantic advances of a nervous young male poet. Yet Bianca, raised a tomboy by her chilly mother (Diana Cignoni) because her promiscuous father (John Apicella) expresses a distaste for female offspring, finds herself beset by terrifying daydreams in which giant phalluses abound, as well as visions of apocalyptic destruction. These Fellini-esque dream sequences are well executed, enhanced by Martin Carrillo’s unnerving sound design. Gradually, a portrait of a troubled young woman forms; Bianca even articulates that she is repulsed by nature and by her own sex, stating that females are “the unclean vessels . . .” and appears baffled that men don’t differ much from animals.

Różewicz’s play is remarkable for its examination of tender female sexuality, and how easily it can be corrupted. Yet he presents, in contrast, a young girl who seems somewhat aware of her sexual power without fully comprehending its true force and ultimate trajectory.

To Bianca, the adults in her immediate circle are gross animals driven by primal urges to feast and lust. Her portly father is frequently seen huffing and snorting and lasciviously chasing the giggling, cavorting housemaids, their plump breasts cascading from their loose clothing.

Performances from the strong 11-member company are first rate, and Sossi directs his cast to play the lengthy, absurdist drama for maximum laughs. Yet there is a dark and disturbing undercurrent flowing beneath the allegorical farce that only fully emerges in the play’s final, devastating moments. What’s missing throughout is a sense of rising panic, of driving urgency to bring us to that finale.

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., WLA; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (no perf April 6); Wed., 8 p.m., April 23, May 7, May 21; Thurs., 8 p.m., May 1, 15, and 22; through May 25, odysseytheatre.com