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Saturday, July 14, 2012

REVIEW: “handicapped people in their formal attire” @ PREMIERE STAGES

Formal Attire_Photo3handicapped people in their formal attire (lack of capitalization the playwright's, not mine) sounds like an intriguing title for the play now onstage at Premiere Stages, but too many plot lines—many of which go nowhere—and uneven pacing and performances make this winner of the theater company's annual play festival feel more like a work in progress than one ready for a full-scale production.

Set in the spring of1968, handicapped people in their formal attire tackles an important topic: the treatment of people with disabilities by the general, more able, citizenry. That the weighty subject is spiked with a major dose of sibling rivalry should make the topic more relevant to the audience, but the constant sniping between the two sisters at the heart of the story gets "old" pretty quickly.

The Sheehan sisters—married mother of six Theresa and wheelchair-bound Agnes—are attending the 1968 Delaware Association for the Handicapped's fundraising dinner honoring Agnes, the driving force behind the group. Outside the Hotel du Pont dining room, the city of Wilmington is boiling in the wake of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the organization is on shaky ground as donations dwindle and important people fail to show up at the event.

Pressed into service when Agnes' aide Cordelia must tend to a teenage daughter in childbirth, Theresa has left her children at home (presumably unattended) while her husband Frank drinks at a bar with his friends. Filled with resentment over her situation, Theresa makes insensitive remarks about disabled people and bemoans the trajectory of her life after being thrown out of St. Aloysius School because she failed Latin several times. In contrast, despite her paralyzed state, Agnes maintains an upbeat, sunny disposition much envied by her older sister.

Over the course of the evening, we learn that perky Agnes has a dark side which surfaces when she feels her needs aren't being fully and quickly enough met (especially by Cordelia's husband Rev. Biggs, serving as Agnes' driver) and her judgmental attitudes toward the propensity of black teenagers to become mothers too young. This last, makes her appear mean, instead of more human. Monsignor Cooke, director of St. Aloysius School acting as the event's master of ceremonies, publicly reveals secrets about the sisters and their past, and although the evening ends in a moment of sisterly love, the road is filled with potholes that interrupt the flow of dramatic traffic and often stop it dead in its tracks.

Formal Attire_Photo1The two actresses portraying Theresa (Lori Hammel) and Agnes (Rachel Pickup) struggle to make the play work, but as written, the characters are more exasperating than endearing. Hammel's Theresa is flip, insulting and often very funny, revealing the dilemma of having a disabled sibling to care for. Pickup assumes the quadriplegic pose consistently and beautifully enough to be believable, but the character's eternal optimism becomes annoying after a while. The dramatic showdown between the two sisters is well acted, however, and each actress brings to light her character's needs and desires to make us care for these two equally wounded souls, at least for a few moments.

Formal Attire_Photo2Roland Sands's sonorous voice and orator-like delivery fit the character of Rev. Biggs, the black minister, who's not above smoking a bit of pot on the sly. John McGinty delivers the deaf Raymond's dialogue convincingly in a voice appropriate to a person with a hearing impairment, although his performance doesn't flow smoothly enough to keep us interested. As Eddie, Agnes's colleague with a hooked prosthesis, David Harrell (above: second from left) sounds angry and discouraged at the hurdles facing the organization at the dinner and in the future (this is before the Americans with Disabilities Act has been passed by Congress), but dramatically, he really doesn't have much to do. Probably the weakest performance comes from Edward Setrakian (above, center) as Msgr. Cooke, although part of the problem is the part as it is written. His halting, unconvincing delivery is almost painful to hear and does little more than provide background and raise some unanswered questions.

Production values are solid. Joseph Gourley's set is a good representation of an up-scale city hotel's formal dining room; especially intriguing was the use of a wall that slid back to reveal the sites of other scenes. Charles Lawlor's sound transports us to 1968 via the music of the era that would be played by a band at such a dinner. Karen Hart has provided lovely costumes for the two women appropriate for a black-tie fundraising event (much is made about Theresa's ability to design apparel, but that thread goes nowhere).

Kathryn Grant's previous submission to the play festival was The Good Counselor, a credible, well-written play that received a good production at Premiere Stages in 2010. I found myself wondering, if handicapped people in their formal attire was the best of 400 submissions this time, what were the others like? As it stands, Grant's play is a bit of a mess. It needs firmer editing, better drawn characters and to make a clearer point. Is it about treating disabled people better or one about sibling rivalry? What does the Catholicism of the two sisters have to do with anything? Ditto Raymond's sexual orientation? Or the Monsignor's relationship with the Sheehan matriarch? The shtick with a wheelchair that has a mind of its own takes up far too much time and energy and serves very little purpose. Yes, managing such a contraption can be frustrating, but the bit's repetition becomes irritating.

These distractions made it all the more difficult for John Wooten to direct with his usual firm hand. There were too many spots where the energy lagged or almost ceased.

That playwrights continue to create new works for the stage is important to the lifeblood of the theater; however, before mounting a full (and expensive) production, companies need to be sure that they're ready for prime time. With a bit more work, handicapped people in their formal attire may be, but not yet.

handicapped people in their formal attire will be performed at the Zella Frye Theatre on the campus of Kean University, 1000 Morris Avenue, in Union through July 29. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM and Saturdays and Sundays at 3 PM. For information and tickets, call the box office at 908.373.SHOW (7469).