ON THE VERGE AT CINNABAR THEATER MISSES THE MARK
A mirthful safari starring (from L to R) Liz Jahren of Sebastopol, Jessica Powell of Fairfax and Laura Jorgensen of San Rafael as three Victorian females equipped with dialog as pithy as their helmets, who encounter love and other life forms on geographic sojourn into glorious time travel.
Photo by Eric Chazankin
ON THE VERGE (or The Geography of Yearning) by Eric Overmyer, directed by Elizabeth Craven. Cinnabar Theater,
ON THE VERGE AT CINNABAR THEATER MISSES THE MARK
A few years ago,
On the Verge is a feminist’s play written by Eric Overmyer that requires excellent diction to convey the philosophical convictions, hidden meanings and innuendos with his alliterative and verbose dialogue. The three female cast members of seasoned players, includes one Equity actor, who attack the authors lines with gusto garnering many laughs but often lack verisimilitude in their delivery. The lone male player, Tim Kniffin, becomes the most memorable character with his eight roles, although he, until the last act, appears only briefly with his entrance and exits. The staging and direction lacks cohesiveness and the action takes place on an almost bare stage with back wall projections such as “The Mysterious Interior” to suggest time, place and offer a bit of humor.
Much of the ambivalence is directed to the author who gives one the impression that he is saying, “Listen closely because my writing is deep, pithy, humorous and esoteric. It requires your full intention.” Be assured your attention will wander. Overmyer spends almost all the one hour and 20 minute first act setting up the premise that his three 1888 Victorian women are on a journey of “chronotinesis.” Alex, the youngest of the three time travelers says, “You mean time travel?” “No. People won’t believe ‘time travel’.”
It is 1888, three diverse women explorers begin their trek ostensibly to Terra Incognita encountering physical obstacles and natural disasters but continue their pertinacious trudge. They are dressed in floor length Victorian skirts, carrying knapsacks with provisions, pith helmets, maps, journals, machetes and the indispensable English umbrellas. Being feminists they disregard Alex’s suggestion that wearing trousers would make their odyssey much easier. They finally discover they are traversing the geography of yearning adrift in time ending up in the year of 1955. In their hegira toward the future, they discover the eight unlikely characters played by Tim Kniffin, their internal strengths as well as references to Burma Shave, “Ike” Eisenhower, pop culture, Rock n’ Roll, Cool-Whip etc and a variety of physical objects, the most important of them being a hand mixer that they assume has great significance.
The second act pulls the story out of the doldrums with Kniffin’s spot on characterizations. Liz Jahren’s believable transformation of Alex into a hippy as she discovers her métier as poet/songwriter is noteworthy and Laura Jorgensen's metamorphosis of unassuming Fanny into the object of Nick Paradise’s affections is charming. The show ends with the forgone conclusion that the ultimate feminist Mary would end up wearing pants. Running time is a long 2 hours and 40 minutes with intermission.
Kedar K. Adour, MD