BWW Reviews: A PERFECT GANESH from Rhubarb Theater Company

Falling somewhere between Lips Together, Teeth Apart and Love! Valour! Compassion! in the canon of Terrence McNally's works, A Perfect Ganesh - despite its Pulitzer Prize nomination - remains relatively unknown, seldom produced and somewhat unappreciated by theater audiences. But if you share an appreciation for McNally's unique and contemporary world-view, you would be well-advised to take in Rhubarb Theater Company's impassioned revival of the play, now onstage at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater through April 23.

Superbly directed by Paul J. Cook and wonderfully acted by a quartet of supremely capable actors, A Perfect Ganesh tells the stories of Katherine and Margaret - two old friends who, it turns out, don't really know each other very well at all. Yet both women find themselves on a journey of self-discovery in India, their husbands resolutely refusing to accompany them on this particular trip.

Leaving behind their comfortable yet constricting lives and families in Greenwich, Connecticut, Kitty and Margaret (played with such lovely fierceness by Trish Crist and Jaime Janiszewski) have traveled to the subcontinent only to find themselves at a crossroads, emotionally and stunningly revealing the horrors and realities of lives lived in self-induced seclusion, berating themselves for past mistakes and failures, and hoping, beyond all good reason, to find redemption and solace in the seductively mysterious Hindu religion, personified by the god Ganesha (Christopher Bosen in a controlled, yet somehow fearless, performance) who interacts with them, while guiding them along their way.

A seriocomic two-and-a-half hours of intriguing thoughts and curious events, McNally creates a fantasy world, if you will, brought vividly to life onstage with flashes of disconcerting realism - the play's more comic moments framed in counterpoint to the darkly dramatic experiences of both women which they refuse to share with anyone, preferring to let the pain and fear crystallize in devastating ways. There are abundant warning signs throughout, of course, and audiences are urged to play close attention to McNally's exquisitely written dialogue for the foreshadowing that telegraphs what lies ahead.

In a style that pays homage (however directly or obliquely, as the case may be) to the plays of Tennessee Williams, McNally deals with regret and recrimination, focusing on the losses both women have borne, examining the conflicting people, places and events that have dotted the personal landscapes of their lives and which are described as evocatively and are as palpable as the poverty and disease they encounter in India.

Homophobia and racism - and more than a little xenophobia - are dealt with throughout the play, as if the requisite ugly Americans of fiction (and real life) have been plopped down, fully formed, into A Passage to India - colonialism and superiority on shocking display despite the end of the Raj years earlier and despite each woman's desire to view herself unshackled by the cloistered life she's left behind in Greenwich. No matter how hard she tries to run from her past, that is what keeps both Kitty and Margaret in its smothering grip, preventing either woman from achieving her ultimate goal of happiness, a release from those nagging self-doubts that slowly, but most certainly, destroys any hope of redemption.

Both Crist and Janiszewski give stunningly raw and achingly real performances, making this - easily and without fear of over-enthusiastic hyperbole - the most satisfying production we've yet seen from Rhubarb Theater Company. Under Cook's steady and controlled guidance, A Perfect Ganesh nonetheless unfolds before you in a lyrical manner, its pace easing you into the story of the two women's shared search for self and enveloping you in an almost familial sense of belonging that somehow remains free of any mawkish sentimentality that would undermine McNally's aim.

Crist has never been better than she is as Kitty, imbuing her character with such warmth and humanity that you cannot help but find yourself sympathizing with her and feeling her sense of loss. Janiszewski's performance is revelatory and unsettling in its tone and scope. Baring her soul with grace, Janiszewski mines the depths of despair with honesty, leavening the character's darker shadings with much-needed humor and wit.

Bosen is sheer perfection as Ganesha (how many actors get to play a god with such zealous glee?) and enacts numerous other characters (including a joyous youngster and a pair of Japanese tourists) with sublime confidence. Special mention is due Melissa Bedinger Hade for her expertly crafted mask and colorful costume that helps Bosen take on his otherworldly character with such style.

But if there's a member of the cast who truly transcends what is expected of him, given the constraints of the script, it's Wilhelm Peters, whose bravura performance as some 18 different characters (including both women's son, an Air India gate agent, numerous domestics and a leper, among others) is notable in its range and remarkable in its richly nuanced shading. Included with the other three actors, Peters makes certain that this acting ensemble is one that audiences will be talking about - in reverent and hushed tones, intermingled with much-deserved praise and overt amazement - for months to come.

Cook is to be commended for his beautifully conceived and realized set design, illuminated by Katie Gant's laudable lighting design that helps make this production so memorable and so worthy of attention.

- A Perfect Ganesh. By Terrence McNally. Directed by Paul J. Cook. Presented by Rhubarb Theater Company at Darkhorse Theater, Nashville. Through April 23. For tickets, call (615) 397-7820 or by email at rhubarbnashville@gmail.com.

Pictured: Jaime Janiszewski and Trish Crist/photo by Anthony Scarlati

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