"Boston Marriage": Don't Ask, Don't Yell

by Jack Craib, New Rep Reviewer

As its first production of the current season, New Rep, in a brilliant stroke of inspiration, has chosen a particularly timely piece with significant sociopolitical subtext for the first state to have legalized same-gender marriage. David Mamet’s “Boston Marriage”, which received its world premiere in nearby Cambridge at the turn of the twenty-first century, is the story of two single women living together at the turn of the twentieth century in a relationship that at that time dared not speak its name. The term itself would appear to have been specific to New England, arising from the Henry James novel “The Bostonians”, in which two unmarried “new women” are engaged in just such a relationship (reputedly inspired by his repressed homosexuality and the “Boston marriage” of his sister Alice). The two “women of fashion” are the “aging” Anna (Debra Wise) and the younger Claire (Jennie Israel). The only other character on stage, played by Melissa Baroni, is the maid, Catherine, whom Anna persists in misnaming Bridey or Nora; Anna’s concept of feminine liberty pointedly does not extend to the lower classes. All three are faultless in their performances, individually and collectively, given Director David Zoffoli’s evident choice to emphasize the comedy of (ill) manners. As a result, the actors seem to be playing to a non-existent balcony in a relentlessly broad manner (no politically incorrect pun intended).

Critics (including this one, in a review of New Rep’s production last season of “Speed-the-Plow”) usually lament Mamet’s inability to write for female characters. “Boston Marriage” (in addition to his more recent work, “Oleanna”) is the exception that may disprove the rule. Make no mistake about it, the staccato dialogue is vintage “Mametspeak”, and his recurring theme is a fundamental deceit or “con”. His wit is evidenced by his usage of words such as “reticule” and “auger” (and this critic’s favorite, his referring to the straightness of a seam as “Euclidian”). Where this work differs is in the parsimonious use of epithets. Most of his plays are laced with profanity; here there is more lace than profanity, making the occasional swear unexpected and thus more effective. Without divulging too much of the plot’s ingenious twists and turns, suffice it to say that the elder Anna intends to deceive her lover into continuing their relationship with a crisis involving a distinctive emerald necklace. By play’s end, it’s apparent that the younger Claire is in fact the more devious manipulator. The women are clearly testing and challenging the limits that Victorian custom has imposed on them, both by their language and their choice of costumes. Mamet delights in skewering gender parameters, educational elitism, societal pretensions and class distinctions.

Mr. Zoffoli has chosen to emphasize the comic aspects of the play. To that end, Rafael Jaen’s witty costumes, as well as the whimsical set design by Janie E. Howland, (who may have borrowed, literally, from her set for last season’s “Hot Mikado”) are consistent with this focus, as are the lighting design by Deb Sullivan and sound design by Joel Abbott. This is a much funnier theatrical experience than in productions done elsewhere, at the cost of losing a great deal of its heart. This is farce rather than satire, Neil Simon rather than Shaw or Oscar Wilde. Only in the very final moments of the second act are the hitherto suppressed inner transformations conveyed. This is unfortunate given Artistic Director Kate Warner’s expressed choice of transformational emotions as her theme for the current season. Still, Mr. Zoffoli’s vision is consistent, and you couldn’t ask for a more hysterical start to the season, in several senses of the word.