BWW Reviews: Wilbury Group Brings Intimate BODY AWARENESS to Their New, Smaller Space

By: Mar. 25, 2013
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Taking the road less traveled, Robert Frost said, made all the difference. For a young theater company, finding the right space in which to produce their plays may be what makes all the difference.

Until recently, Wilbury Group was presenting their plays in an old warehouse space, which was both difficult to find and mostly uncomfortable for the audience. The cavernous space was too large, too hard to find and made it too difficult for audiences to enjoy exciting new theater. Now, the company has found new digs, on Broad Street, in the Southside Cultural Center. The space is far smaller, far more comfortable and much more intimate, allowing Wilbury to bring the audience up close and personal with exciting works of drama, from old to new, musical to straight play.

First up in the new space is Annie Baker's off-Broadway hit Body Awareness. The action revolves around the lives of a lesbian couple and their son in a small college town in Vermont. It's "Body Awareness Week" at the local college and things quickly get turned upside down at school, where one of the women is in charge of the week's festivities, and at home, where they welcome as their guest a man who photographs and exhibits pictures of nude women.

Baker's too-short play might have done well to limit itself and not have so many plotlines. There's a lot going on in this quick ninety minutes, from a young man who may or may not have Asperger's to a lesbian couple who have their lives turned upside down by a male houseguest to deeply rooted issues from body image to childhood abuse. Some plotlines never get any sort of resolution while another has a climactic event that seems unnecessary and tacked on. It would be nice to get more insight into the backstory or history of these characters and why they are socially awkward or afraid or have body image or "daddy" issues.

On the other hand, real life is just as complicated and complex as this play and Baker does an excellent job of taking us into this family and their messy existence. Her writing shines when she brings us into the intimate, slice-of-life moments that happen when a family sits around the dinner table or a couple talks in bed at night before going to sleep. Her characters are universal, relatable and sympathetic, even if they aren't fully fleshed out. At its core, Baker's play may be an examination of the human conditions and how we never truly know each other, no matter how close we think we are.

Those slice of life moments when Baker's play succeeds are brought to believable life by a wonderful and talented group of actors and their director, Wendy Overly. She does exactly what a director should do and makes herself invisible. That is to say, it never seems like actors are doing something because a director told them to. Scenes happen organically and seem true to life, not forced or fake and actors remain in character, even during scene changes and on stage costume changes.

A splendid cast brings the intimate moments to life with skill and seeming ease. The audience is sitting so close, they'll feel like they are truly in the kitchen or bedroom with these people. In that kind of environment, actors cannot fake it and these actors don't. Their emotions, reactions and responses are sincere. Karen Carpenter is especially good as Phyllis, the college professor in charge of "Body Awareness Week." Carpenter handles all the extremes and emotional swings perfectly. It would have been nice if the character were written to be more fully developed, Carpenter no doubt would have sunk her teeth even deeper into the role than she already does.

Clare Blackmer is excellent as Phyllis' partner, Joyce. We get a bit more of her backstory and Blackmer gets to present us with a more fully developed human being. She really captures the essence of this woman's insecurities, fears and doubts. Blackmer and Carpenter have great chemistry as well and are excellent together as the struggling couple. Jared, Joyce's son, is played by Samuel Appleman, who is wonderful in the role and does an excellent job of transforming into a socially awkward, shy, introverted young man who is just trying to figure things out. We all know someone like him.

If there's one drawback to the proceedings, it's the strange choices in the technical elements. The set design by Mike Commendatore and Zach Murdoch is appropriately minimal and simple. On the other hand, there are some very odd decorating elements that seem out of place in the house of two middle-aged academics. Even stranger is the costume design by Amanda Downing-Carney. While the play takes place in Vermont in winter, there's even mention of all the snow, characters are almost never dressed for winter in Vermont.

Full disclosure, I saw the show during the final preview, a pay-what-you-can performance. It's possible that some tweaks or adjustments were made for the official opening the following night. Other than perhaps finding more sweaters for actors' costumes, little needed to be changed. The Wilbury Group has brought an emotional, funny, smart and thought-provoking play to their new space, one that audiences should get to know.

Body Awareness runs March 21-April 6 Tickets: $15-$20; preview performances (March 21-24) just $10-$15. Discounts for groups of 10 or more, students and seniors. Tickets at 401-400-7100 or thewilburygroup.org.

Pictured (L to R): Clare Blackmer and Karen Carpenter. Photo by Brian Gagnon Photography



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