New Century Theatre, Northampton, MA
through July 12, 2014
By K.J. Rogowski
Sarah Treem's "The How And The Why" is an
ambitious two-person show currently playing at New Century Theatre. This
production is, in part, an extensive exploration and debate of a proposed
scientific theory on the evolutionary reason for menstruation, part
professional crossroads on how to get ahead in the scientific community while
leaving your coworker/lover behind, and part exploration of the deeply
conflicted relationship between a mother and the daughter. By a twist of fate,
some 28 years later, the daughter who was abandoned at birth ends up being her
own mother's scientific collaborator. As if this was not enough to absorb, the
play also includes the introduced, but never followed though on, plot element
of one of the characters having stage three cancer.
Act I moves fairly well, although the ongoing antagonism
between the two characters is never explained, only vaguely hinted at, which
leaves audience members wondering exactly what is happening and why. However,
much credit especially goes to the two actors, Lisa Abend and Suzanne Ankrum.
At the opening night performance, a stir-related power outage put their stage
in sheer darkness. The two never lost composure, but assured the audience
"this happens all the time," getting a good round of applause. In a
few minutes the lights were back on, they came back, restarted a few lines back
from when the lights went out, and moved ahead unflustered and seamlessly.
The scientific and career conflicts debated in the Act I are
detailed and well punctuated with the push and pull of conflicted characters.
They move towards and away from one another as the action and arguments play
out. Act II, however, takes an odd turn, with the prime characters meeting once
again in "a dive bar." At this point, the production looses its
drive. The main factors at play are the script's repetition of the debates and
arguments from Act I with scientific theories and counter theories explained, argued,
and re-argued, as are the personal conflicts. Director Sheila Siragusa's choice
is to just sit the two at a table, in a room all alone, and there they stay for
the majority of the act. In spite of lots of room to move, to push, and pull,
there was little movement. Useful props were not used, such as the dartboard
that, oddly, had no darts.
It may be that the script tries to take on and resolve too
many complex issues, or something missing in the action, but the production
leaves its audience, at least at the play's first performance, wondering about
the how and why.
