"Going to St. Ives" Puts Two Women in a World of Pain

"Going to St. Ives"

Written by Lee Blessing; directed by Eric C. Engel; set design, Jenna McFarland Lord; costume design, Gail Astrid Buckley; lighting design, Russ Swift; sound design, Dewey Dellay; production stage manager, Maureen Lane

Starring: Lindsay Crouse as Dr. Cora Gage and Jacqui Parker as May N'Kame

Performances: Now through August 3, Gloucester Stage, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, Mass.
Box Office: 978-281-4433 or www.gloucesterstage.org
Next on Stage: Doubt, August 7-24

As I was going to St. Ives
I met a man with seven wives
And every wife had seven sacks
And every sack had seven cats
And every cat had seven kits
Kits, cats, sacks, wives
How many were going to St. Ives?

In Going to St. Ives, Lee Blessing's relentless two-person clash between privileged society and an emerging but brutal Third World nation, the simple child's riddle from which the play borrows its name becomes the mantra of two fiercely strong and heroic women whose lives collide in a morass of guilt, grief, and the determination to right past wrongs. Starring award winning actresses Lindsay Crouse as the English eye surgeon Dr. Cora Gage and Jacqui Parker as the mother of an African dictator May N'Kame, this Gloucester Stage production, deftly directed by Eric C. Engel and designed with pitch-perfect sets and costumes by Jenna McFarland Lord and Gail Astrid Buckley, is a riveting twist of fate that catapults two women and two worlds into shocking awareness of each other's enduring pain.

The women's initial encounter, ostensibly brought about by May's need to have her acute and potentially debilitating glaucoma treated, sets them both on solitary paths fighting against the tide of their own upbringing and cultures. Joined together by an uneasy codependence – it turns out Cora wants May to persuade her son to pardon four doctors accused of treason and May wants Cora to help her poison that same son in order to end his murderous, terrifying reign – they slowly, tentatively begin to trust and respect one another, finding commonality in their personal losses, motherhood and humanity.

Crouse and Parker take their women on an excruciating journey of morality and choice. While politely sipping tea from fine Blue Willow china, they slyly negotiate their equally tough terms. Ever the Englishwoman, Crouse's perfectly poised and rigidly repressed good doctor must decide if her Hippocratic Oath can be bent to harm one in order to save thousands of others. As her mannered and protected world begins to crumble, she shakes, sweats, and shouts out her years of grief and anguish over the violent death of her innocent young son. Parker, on the other hand, is all controlled regal defiance. She blunts an underlying seething anger with a pointed civility that cuts straight to the heart of the differences between the doctor's cloistered English gardens and her own blood-soaked African nation. Seeming to represent all good mothers of the world while simultaneously struggling with a very private maternal hell, Parker is devastating as she tries to decide if her own life is worth sparing. When she claims responsibility for the atrocities committed by the child she bore, it's as if Mother Earth herself is quaking on the brink of implosion.

The destinies of these two powerful women, exquisitely portrayed, unfold much like the ancient folk tale that is painted onto the fine porcelain saucers and cups they cling to for stability. United and determined, they ultimately spread their wings and fly against barbarism and tyranny, just as the lovers in the Blue Willow pattern do. They also destroy the last remnants of security they once knew by shattering the status quo of their respective governments and lives.

The redemption in Going to St. Ives lies in the promise of hope for the future. Just as the good doctor is able to piece together a lovely garden path from the shards of Blue Willow she finds while digging in her flower beds, so might an oppressed culture twisted by destructive leaders and world neglect rise from the ashes to find peaceful expression. Once these two women leave behind all that is familiar, setting out against the mainstream down their lonely path of heroism, a return to blind ignorance is impossible. Perhaps in saving May's clear vision, Cora begins to see how she can open the world's closed eyes.

PHOTOS (by Shawn Henry): Jacqui Parker (standing) as May N'Kame and Lindsay Crouse as Dr. Cora Gage; Lindsay Crouse; Jacqui Parker

 

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