BWW Reviews: THE BALD SOPRANO Offers a Comical Look at Life's Absurdities

As the house lights came up on the Garage Theatre Group's production of THE BALD SOPRANO on Sunday afternoon, the delighted audience was still reflecting on what they had just seen. "That was brilliant but absurd," commented the man sitting behind me. "I think it was supposed to be absurd", offered his smiling companion. Indeed, this 1940's classic work by playwright Eugene Ionesco is considered by many to be the granddaddy of Absurdist Theater, a genre of unconventional fiction written in the late 1940's to the 1960's. In the play, Ionesco attempts to illustrate the futility of conversation in modern day society. His characters are so intent on making their own voices heard that they do not even bother to listen to what everyone else has to say. "Philosophically, I think what the play is about is the breakdown of language and the breakdown of communication", explains director Michael Bias. "Ionesco himself subtitled it "The Anti-Play".

This current adaptation, now playing at FDU's Becton Theatre, tells the story of modern-day suburbanites Mr. and Mrs. Smith, played with skill and finesse by actors Brendan Walsh and Melanie Bell. What at first appears to be polite and orderly behavior quickly gives way to hilarious chaos and almost nonsensical dialogue. "It is really a social commentary about the ridiculousness of conversation", offered Walsh. "It becomes about airs, it becomes about put-on behaviors instead of really communicating and connecting with each other."

Andrew Danish and Megan McDermott play friends of the Smiths who drop in as invited guests of their dinner party. While they are introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Martin, the audience is quickly thrown into a state of confusion, as the couple appears to be complete strangers to one another. "Have we met before?" MR. Martin asks Mrs. Martin. "It's entirely possible", she replies flirtatiously. A hilarious dialogue ensues and it is not until they discover that they both live in the same apartment building, on the same floor, in the same bedroom, with the same mint green comforter on the bed, that they realize they are, in fact, husband and wife. The scene not only displays the great comedic talents of the actors, it also serves as a commentary on the institution of marriage itself. "It's very much this married couple who are not communicating and are not connected," McDermott observes. "They have lost each other and literally don't recognize each other."

Bias took on the formidable task of translating Ionesco's work from the original French version to English. "All the translations I had read were done in the 50's and were very stodgy. " explained Bias. "I had actually spoken to a translator and asked if I could update it. And that person was like 'we can't do that' so I said 'alright then I guess I'll have to do it myself.'" With only his high school French abilities to call upon, Bias sat for weeks with Google translator and brought his own version of the play to life. "I made it work for my sensibilities and then just hoped that an audience would respond to those sensibilities."

During the talk-back session which followed the Sunday performance, audience members were highly intrigued with the symbolism of the play as well as the physicality and humor which the gifted cast brought to the stage. One audience member likened the minutia and silliness of the dialogue to an episode of "Seinfeld", referring to it as "a show about nothing".

Bias explained that his goal with the piece was to make it accessible and relatable to modern day audiences and admitted that in the process, he may have taken a few creative liberties. "Ionesco is either rolling over in his grave or he's standing up and applauding us. I'd like to think that he's applauding." joked Bias. "I really believe that pushing to where we're pushing is in the spirit of what his original intent was."

The Garage Theatre Group's production of THE BALD SOPRANO is currently running through May 8th at Fairleigh Dickinson's Becton Theater with performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm. For further information, please visit: GarageTheatre.org

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