"Boston Marriage" Review

New Rep’s season opener is a fast-paced send-up of Victorian manners and mores as two women, partners in an old-fashioned “Boston Marriage,” survive by their wits in a hypocritical society. Playwright David Mamet has great fun with the euphemisms of the time, producing double entendres at a pace so rapid we frequently wanted an instant replay to catch the jokes.

Anna (Debra Wise) and Claire (Jennie Israel), longtime lovers, find their relationship endangered when Anna becomes the mistress (“Of course he’s married. If he didn’t have a wife why would he need a mistress?”) of a wealthy man, willing to support her in the style to which she would like to become accustomed. Newly prosperous, she redecorates the parlor in anticipation of her partner’s return from a journey. But Claire arrives madly in love with a young traveling companion and, consummate narcissist, begs Anna’s help in seducing her. The play ends up being part social commentary, part love story, and part screwball comedy. We can’t do better than echo the comment of an audience member, overheard at intermission: “This is like Oscar Wilde on speed.”

The intense interaction between the two main characters is heightened by the interruptions of the housemaid, whose name and country of origin Anna constantly (purposefully?) confuses. A country girl new to city ways, Catherine seems unaware of the nature of the household she serves, but blunders on with comic determination. She’s going to serve tea come hell or high water. Played with excellent comic timing by Melissa Baroni, she ultimately proves neither meek nor mild. Her country naiveté is an excellent foil for Anna and Claire’s convoluted plotting, and she is rewarded with some of the funniest lines.

The set designer indicates the ornate Victorian style of the drawing room with a few bold strokes and a sea of chintz (which figures in the plot). Two facing chaises are used to great effect, particularly by Claire, whose sensuality is revealed more in her interactions with the furniture than with her lover (interestingly). Several delicate chairs suggest Victorian style, but their fragility made us anxious that the ladies’ full petticoats and trailing scarves would overturn them (as happened during the curtain call). The costumes are somewhat odd, vaguely period but somehow off beat (or off-putting, perhaps). The layering of vests and scarves, and subsequent strip-tease by Claire, is a good touch.

While the play’s program offers a careful dramaturgical interpretation of Mamet’s treatment of women characters, the play itself does nothing to rebut the feminist charge that Mamet is a misogynist. Indeed, in many ways the play is cruel to its central pair, casting both in the role of self-centered, predatory lesbians (a typically theatrical treatment of women who love women). However, the actors do a lovely job with an often-difficult script, and many laugh lines left us gasping for breath. If you can avoid taking the play itself too seriously, Boston Marriage can make for a fun night out.

-- Shauna Shames & Johanna Ettin