BWW Reviews: Robyn Allen and Alexandra Utpadel Fuel the Fire of RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN

In a poignantly reflective essay on Rapture, Blister, Burn, conceivably an homage to The Heidi Chronicles, Gina Gionfriddo opines:

"The dream, then and now, postfeminist and post-postfeminist (or whatever we choose to call this moment) is still simple and still incredibly hard: How do men and women figure out how to negotiate their equality better? As Cathy in "Rapture" advises a female student in the throes of love and ambition, "My middle-aged observation is that, in a relationship between two equals, you can't both go first." "

The highly acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-nominated drama, which has been making the rounds since 2012 at theaters throughout the country (New York's Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley's Aurora Theatre, L.A's Geffen Playhouse, Chicago's Goodman Theatre) is now on stage at Theatre Artists Studio in Phoenix.

Deservedly praised for its intelligent and brilliantly crafted script, Rapture, Blister, Burn should be seen if for no other reason than to witness its crafty and witty exposure of the haunting and daunting themes with which many women, not all women, across generations, wrestle. It is also an exposition, a likely unintentional spoof, of the self-indulgent, pseudo-intellectual, and confused prattle that sometimes poses as feminist scholarship. On the other hand, it is, nevertheless, an intellectually rich and stimulating journey through the various threads of the tapestry that define the women's liberation movement. (The history of woman ascending is cleverly advanced through pre-show projections of women of accomplishment ~ as diverse in their pathways and politics as Mary Tyler Moore, Betty Friedan, Sandra Day O'Connor, Sally Ride, Geraldine Ferraro, Margaret Thatcher, Sigourney Weaver as Alien's Ripley ~ and slogans ~ Sisters fighting against everyday oppression; Is one woman's sexuality another woman's porn?)

In Rapture, Blister, Burn, Gionfriddo offers us a view of this history, its premises, and the central question that lingers today, as it did in The Heidi Chronicles ~ whether the promise of or aspiration for having it all, career and family, can really be fulfilled ~through the eyes of four beholders: two contesting forty-somethings, tantalizingly sandwiched between a boomer and a millennial.

Directed by Richard Powers Hardt, the play actually focuses less on how men and women negotiate their equality and more on how two women negotiate their nagging regrets for the choices they've made.

Cathy (Debra Rich) has returned home to care for her mother Alice (Petey Swartz) who is recovering from a heart attack, albeit she seems quite capable of taking care of herself and pouring martinis when necessary. She reconnects with her best friend Gwen (powerfully and movingly played by Robyn Allen), a recovering alcoholic who is now married (with two children) to Cathy's old beau Don (Aaron Seever) and has kindly if not curiously arranged a teaching gig for Cathy at the college where, imagine, Don is an administrative dean. Here's an invitation to something more than a reunion!

The fun and fulmination begin when class ~ The Fall of American Civilization ~ commences and only two students have registered: Gwen and her sharp-tongued and worldly-wise baby-sitter Avery (sharply and crisply defined by Alexandra Utpadel). It doesn't take long to realize that the highly accomplished academic feels adrift and unsettled, yearning for a place to call home or that the housewife/mother has spent thirteen years wondering about the life she would have had if she hadn't gotten married. Betwixt and between allusions to Rousseau, Betty Friedan, Phyllis Schlafly, and Dr. Phil, revelations abound about Gwen's marriage. It is Avery, however, who cuts to her version of the chase: "You either have a career and wind up lonely and sad, or you have a family and wind up lonely and sad?"

With the trading of places that ensues, further revelations surface about what defines happiness, freedom, and fulfillment.

The elegance and depth of Ms. Gionfriddo's work lies in her avoidance of happy endings and shibboleths. Life happens; it's not always fair; choices need to be made; accountability for those choices and their consequences needs to be owned. It is a formulation that applies equally to women as it does to men, except that, for the latter, the journey has been exacerbated by the shackles a male-dominated society. The struggle, and the beat, goes on, and Ms. Gionfriddo has delivered a substantive basis for thoughtful and provocative conversation.

Rapture, Blister, Burn continues its run through February 1st.

Photo credit to Mark Gluckman

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