Do You Feel Anger?
Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Circle X Theatre Co.
Through February 25
RECOMMENDED
There’s a Cowboy Junkies song from 1993 called “Hunted,” which is about the ever-present threat of male violence in women’s lives, the refrain of which is: “Do you know what it’s like to be hunted?” It’s a terrifying song, and unfortunately is no less resonant today than it was 30 years ago. Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s play, Do You Feel Anger?, explores the dark side of the war between the sexes with great humor and a bit of surrealism but clearly gets across outrage that women still have to deal with this situation. The new production by Circle X at the Atwater Village Theatre is superb, bolstered greatly by vivid performances.
Sofia (Paula Rebelo) is starting a new job, teaching an empathy seminar to employees at a debt collection company. She has her work cut out for her, if her first meetings with friendly but not so secretly abused worker Eva (Tasha Ames) or the upbeat but deranged manager Jon (Casey Smith) are anything to go by. Once she meets Jordan (Napoleon Tavale) and Howie (Rich Liccardo), the other employees in her class, she knows it’s going to be an uphill battle getting past their ingrained misogyny. But as she tries to connect with these people, she finds that they’re changing her, as well.
Rebelo does a nice job as the earnest lead among a gang of overtly crazy characters, and Rose Portillo is similarly good as Sofia’s Mother, who mostly has a series of monologues. Smith is hilarious and disturbing as Jon (“Bottom line – I really want to pretend that I’m a good guy.”), and a scene in which he discovers for the first time that menstruation exists, to his disbelieving horror, is a comedic highlight of the play. Liccardo is very effective as the truculent Howie, and Tavale is funny as the somewhat dim Jordan. Ames, however, is magnificent as Eva, in a humorous and heartbreaking performance that represents the manic, damaged heart of the show.
Director Halena Kays gets high-energy work from her talented cast and adroitly achieves the tricky balance between humor and disquiet that the play requires. François-Pierre Couture’s set design features a surprising reveal, and the lighting design from Couture and Stephen Azua – especially a fluorescent series of spotlights at scene breaks – adds to the feeling of something being wrong at the debt company. Nelson-Greenberg’s writing essays the tightrope of this play so well that one is disarmed by the broad humor, until there’s a moment toward the end where we remember that none of this is funny. At that point in the production, I could palpably feel everyone around me in the audience thinking about how the issues brought up in this play were reflected in their own lives, and it was powerful and sobering. A lot of people know what it’s like to be hunted.
Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village; Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m.; through February 25. https://circlextheatre.org. Running time: ninety minutes with no intermission.
