Review: Boston Premiere MEN ON BOATS

Men On Boats

Written by Jaclyn Backhaus, Directed by Dawn M. Simmons; Scenic Design, Jenna McFarland Lord; Costume Design, Rachel Padula Shufelt; Lighting Design, Daisy Long; Sound Design, Elizabeth Cahill; Props Design, Abby Shenker; Production Stage Manager, Sam Layco; Assistant Stage Manager, Katherine Humbert

CAST (in alphabetical order): Lyndsay Allyn Cox, Ally Dawson, Veronica Duerr, Bridgette Hayes, Alice Kabia, Mal Malme, Cody Sloan, Robin JaVonne Smith, Hayley Spivey, Ellie van Amerongen

Performances through October 7 at SpeakEasy Stage Company, Roberts Studio Theatre in the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA; Box Office 617-933-8600 or www.SpeakEasyStage.com

In 1869, Major John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran, made a pioneering journey to explore and chart the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. With his crew of nine men in four small, wooden boats, they were the first non-indigenous people to make such a trip. Growing up in Arizona, playwright Jaclyn Backhaus learned about the expedition as a child, but knew she would never have had the opportunity to participate in the adventure because of her gender. She decided to write a play about it, to vicariously enjoy their experience, but also to exercise her dramatic license to present the story from a decidedly different viewpoint.

SpeakEasy Stage Company opens its 27th season with the Boston-area premiere of Men On Boats, directed by Dawn Simmons, and featuring an all-female design team and a racially diverse, non-male cast. Backhaus specifies in the script that the actors are to be "female-identifying, trans-identifying, gender fluid, and/or non-gender-conforming," but no cisgender white males. Even as she bases the play on the known history and Powell's own journal of the events on the expedition, Backhaus flips the narrative by altering the nature of the cast of characters. The audience may first presume that the actors will play their roles as if they are imitating men, but it becomes clear that the portrayals cannot be pigeonholed. In fact, all of the performers put a stamp on their roles that is in keeping with their individual tendencies.

Men On Boats is truly an ensemble piece and nine of the ten players are making their SpeakEasy Stage debuts. Robin JaVonne Smith takes command (Powell), Veronica Duerr (WilLiam Dunn) often challenges the Major's decisions, and Bridgette Hayes (John Colton Sumner) is a good-natured voice of reason. Mal Malme (Old Shady) is Powell's taciturn brother, bright-eyed Hayley Spivey (Bradley) is the youngest member of the crew, Ally Dawson (Hawkins, and the sole SpeakEasy veteran) handles the cooking chores, and Alice Kabia (Hall) is the academically-oriented cartographer. Rounding out the crew are Lyndsay Allyn Cox (O.G.) and Ellie van Amerongen (Seneca) as the troublesome Howland brothers, and Cody Sloan (Frank Goodman) as a British traveler looking for adventure (but not too much). Hayes provides the strongest performance that conveys the character throughout the entire story arc.

For me, the high points of the play are learning about a lost bit of history, the inventive stagecraft, and the creativity of the designers. In addition to adapting to the non-male cast portraying the historical figures, the audience is called upon to use imagination to experience the river ride, hear the rushing water, see the canyon walls, and feel the crew's hunger, frustrations, and fears. The "boats" are collapsible planks of wood joined together with hinges, held up at waist level by three or four passengers who stand single file within the framework. They emulate the motion on the river by bouncing, tilting, banking, and sometimes tumbling out altogether. On either side of the stage, there are platforms that suggest part of a campsite or an elevated area above the river. Rope netting hangs to represent the walls of the canyon, effectively tumbling to the floor when they reach their destination.

Director Simmons meets the challenges of staging the story with her team of Jenna McFarland Lord (scenic), Rachel Padula-Shufelt (costume), DaisyLong (lighting), Elizabeth Cahill (sound), and Abby Shenker (props). They playfully capture the playwright's intent to make the viewer feel like a child again, to grasp the oars of an imaginary boat plummeting through the rapids, to make believe that you can have whatever adventure you choose. When I was a kid, my sisters and I used to make up and perform playlets in our yard for the neighborhood, or for family holiday gatherings. Men On Boats took me back to those thrilling days of yesteryear, 1869 on the Colorado River, and mid-century Malden, Massachusetts.

Photo credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots (The cast of Men On Boats)

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