BWW Reviews: BIG LOVE, or Fifty Brides For Fifty Cousins

Charles Mee's Big Love, a modern variation on Aeschylus' The Danaids that premiered in 2000, is loaded with issues of sexual violence (talked about and seen on stage) and the tragic results of gender inequality, and yet, especially as presented in director Tina Landau's rollicking free-for-all production, the fast and funny evening is enormous fun, and optimistically romantic.

As prescribed in the text, the seaside Italian villa designer Brett J. Banakis supplies is more of an art installation than a set, with numerous bouquets of dry flowers hanging above the audience, empty wine glasses placed conveniently about, a bathtub and a door frame placed on stage and white walls that serve as canvases for spray painting and other forms of defacing as well as screens for Austin Switser's clever projections.

Fifty reluctant brides have escaped from Greece, rather than being bonded by an old contract to marry their fifty cousins. For the sake of brevity, Mee only concerns us with three.

The outspoken leader of the trio, Thyona (Stacy Sargeant) has been arranged to wed the most piggish of the lot, Constantine (Ryan-James Hatanaka). Party girl Olympia (Libby Winters) has been matched with the sexy, buff Oed (Emmanuel Brown). Only the thoughtful and romantic Lydia (Rebecca Naomi Jones) seems to have lucked out because when she winds up meeting her assigned mate, the sweet and sensitive Nikos (Bobby Steggert), it turns out they have a true affection for each other.

The women are granted refuge by the villa's gracious owner, Piero (Christopher Innvar) after his son Giuliano (Preston Sadleir) finds Lydia bathing in their tub. While the actors generally have broad-stroke characters to play, the evening's most delicious portrayal comes from Lynn Cohen as Piero's wise and philosophical mother, Bella. Bella has thirteen sons and in a very funny scene she describes each one of them while polishing a basketful of tomatoes. Her attitude toward each son determines what happens to each tomato.

Another very funny moment has the three young women repeatedly flinging their bodies to the ground as proof that they are not delicate creatures who need a man's protection. The bit is repeated by the would-be grooms when they arrive.

As a believer that "There is no such thing as an original play," Mee has his characters quoting and paraphrasing sources such as "Dr. Love," Leo Buscalia and feminist author Valerie Solanas (SCUM Manifesto) and performing musical hits like "You Don't Own Me," "Bad" and "The Macarena."

Things get bloody toward the end and while violent acts are not condoned, there is an understanding of the social standards of inequality that bring these actions about.

But in the end, Big Love is just that; a wacky farce with a wide heart that celebrates the true romance of an equal partnership.

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