"Abundance" March 29, 2000
By Lucia Mauro
Recommended
Leave it to playwright Beth Henley to join emotional transformation, domestic abuse, drought, a sensationalistic book tour and a one-eyed man into a work of quiet magnitude. Her 1989 play, "Abundance," spans 25 years in the lives of two mail-order brides in the Old West. Pendulum Theatre Company's bittersweet production approaches Henley's offbeat comedy with heartfelt introspection.We first meet Bess and Macon at a stagecoach stop awaiting their pen-pal mates. It's 1868, and each woman represents an extreme: Bess, a dreamy romantic, aims to be an obedient wife to the man she hopes "won't be no terrible ugly." Macon, a spitfire eccentric, harbors a grand plan to escape her stifling life, traverse the globe and write novels. Over 19 tightly written scenes, Henley takes her quirky characters through complex role reversals.
Reality crashes down on both women when Bess learns her husband-to-be was killed in accident. His brother, the psychotic Jack Flan, forces Bess to marry him. Then he proceeds to abuse her physically and mentally. Macon meets an equally painful fate. She marries an old man named William Curtis, who lost an eye in a mining accident. Although kind, he repulses Macon, who longs for a virile lover.
As years pass, Macon and William enjoy a degree of prosperity that contrasts with the despair of Bess and Jack's violent bond. But when Bess and Jack move in, Macon can no longer resist Jack's advances.
Bess and William helplessly accept their misery until, one night, Bess runs away and is captured by Indians. Years later, she returns to her husband a crafty and vengeful woman. After writing a book about her kidnapping, Bess symbolically assumes Macon's identity. Yet in the end, both women learn the meaning of forgiveness.
Avoiding caricatures, director Bill Redding allows the actors to unpeel their characters' layers as they trek across the heart's rocky terrain.
Pendulum's staging gains momentum through the performances of Katherine Martinez Ripley as Macon and Lisa Rothschiller as Bess. They maintain an inextricable bond while painfully defining each character's individuality. Ripley flings herself into Macon's free-spirited anguish. Rothschiller journeys through Bess' innocence, brutal experience and reclamation of self.
Michael Mazzara delivers a skin-crawling portrayal of Jack. As the awkwardly humble William, Tom Pfeil gives a sympathetic but tentative turn. J. Michael Desper's scenic design reinforces these characters' soul-deadening isolation.
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