Identity crisis

  Photos by MARY HOLSCHER (From left to right) Elizabeth
(Jerri Tubbs) visits her dying daughter Jo
(Anne Burke) with Jo’s caregiver Oscar
(David Simmons) and friend Carol (Leslie
Connelly) in "The Lady from Dubuque" playing at Macgowan’s
Little Theatre.

By Darcy Lewis
Daily Bruin Contributor

The set of “The Lady from Dubuque” doesn’t
seem like it would be a place for people to question their
identity, but it is.

As unlikely as it may seem, the vintage suburban setting of the
theater department’s newest play, premiering tonight at
Macgowan’s Little Theater, becomes the backdrop for the
question, “Who am I?” This question resonates
throughout the play, written by Edward Albee, who will attend
Saturday’s performance.

“I think it’s really important that rather than
exemplifying the ’70s as a period, we tried to allude to the
’70s as a period,” said graduate theater student
Jennifer Revit about the play’s set. “We use items such
as shag carpet and the conversation pit, without hitting people
over the head with heavy drapery, matching carpet and wallpaper and
couches ““ so we sort of simplified it.”

The view of the sky through the set’s plexi-glass walls
invites distraction. It’s hard to take things seriously when
sitting among over-sized, furry pillows. The atmosphere raises
curiosity about things like the “conversation pit”
““ can it really create conversations where people reveal
things about their deepest self-identity? Maybe the track lighting
is too bright or too dim. Maybe there have been too many trips to
the alcohol-cluttered glass shelves to ever come to an answer.

  Fred (Alessandro Trinca) stands over Sam
(Victor Trevino) in a scene from "The Lady of
Dubuque."

Opening with a cocktail party and a game of 20 questions, the
characters in “The Lady from Dubuque” first ask
“Who am I?” as part of the game. Superficial
assessments of each character can quickly be made: Carol (Leslie
Connelly) and Fred (Alessandro Trinca) are crass and embarrassing;
Lucinda (Elaine Burn) and Edgar (Christopher Hall) are annoying
yuppies; Jo (Anne Burk) and Sam (Victor Trevino) are dying and
devoted.

Despite the play’s light opening with a party and a game,
its subject and tone are very serious.

“There’s nothing subtle about what’s
happening,” said graduate theater student Victor Trevino, who
plays Sam. “There’s nothing soft. Things are just
moving at a clip; things are edgy. Not very much of what’s
happening or what’s being said and done is smooth. If
anything, it’s raw and jagged and it hits at the core of who
we are.”

The question of “Who am I?” becomes very significant
as the play progresses. The initial answers to the question give
way to much more revealing responses.

“This play and the characters in it are sort of
characteristic of Albee in that the characters and what they say
are not to be taken literally,” Trevino said.
“There’s always something else going on underneath the
lines, in what they’re saying, so that subtext becomes
especially important in a piece like this.”

The superficial reality with which the play begins steadily
gives way to a feeling of surrealism. One aspect of this surrealism
is the actors’ constant communication with the audience.

“This play is subtly radical, it’s not overtly
radical,” said Professor David Schweizer, the play’s
director. “In many ways it’s conventional in its form.
It’s in a room, it’s in real time with people speaking.
Yet, at the same time, written into this play is a casual speaking
to the audience. So there’s this presentational aspect
that’s very off the top. It’s not like everything stops
and the light’s change, it’s just whenever.”

The characters’ intimacy with the audience is not as
surreal as some of their introductions. The Lady from Dubuque
(Jerri Tubbs) and Oscar (David Simmons) appear from out of nowhere
and create identities on the spot that allow them to become
involved with Jo’s death. The Lady assumes the role of
Jo’s mother and partner, while Oscar asserts control over the
reactions of the other characters to Jo’s
“mother,” as well as her death.

“One of the things the play is about is how the event of
someone leaving the world affects everyone around them, and,
whether it’s possible to do anything that brings any real
comfort or any real enlightenment to that event,” Schweizer
explained.

Despite their abstract origin, The Lady and Oscar are the ones
who bring comfort and enlightenment to Jo as she is dying as well
as to the other characters in the play. Such abstractness is
typical of Albee’s plays.

“He has said to me directly, “˜I write naturalistic
plays in which strange things happen,’ which is different
from saying, “˜I write plays with a surreal
landscape,'” Schweizer said of Albee’s style.

Rather than seeing it as an obstacle, Schweizer finds
Albee’s style appealing.

“As the plays got stranger and more experimental in nature
and his commercial reputation lessened, I almost became more
interested,” Schweizer said. “The rich and provocative
nature of what he did interested me.”

The subject matter of the play may be provocative and the
presentation surreal, but Schweizer thinks this is precisely why
this sort of theater is appealing.

“To actually go and plop down in a theater seat with other
live creatures and look at some theater event, I think you want to
feel like you’re something a little bit wild, otherwise, why
go?” Schweizer said. “There’s a lot of other
things you could do.”

In addition, Schweizer feels that the theater is the finest
place for this sort of surreal event to be enjoyed.

“There’s no other media that’s as potent as
the stage to examine those issues of perception and what is real
and what is not,” he said. “It’s almost as if the
form mirrors the content.”

Trevino feels that every audience member’s reaction to the
play will be unique.

“I think that we’re all different, and we all come
from so many different places. I think the audience is likely to
take away a lot of different things,” Trevino said.
“All in all, I hope that they find the piece entertaining and
that it makes people think a little bit about the things we do, the
things we take for granted.”

THEATER: “The Lady from Dubuque”
premieres tonight at 8 p.m. at Macgowan’s Little Theater. For
ticket information contact the Central Ticket Office at (310)
825-2101.