MISS WITHERSPOON

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Miss Witherspoon" by Christopher Durang

Date: Mon. Mar. 26, 5:00 pm

Quicktake on MISS WITHERSPOON

     Since "Sister Mary Ignatius..." in 1981,Christopher Durang's fantastical excursions , some more successful than others, have incorporated religious satire. His recent Pulitzer nominated whirlwind consideration of reincarnation, "Miss Witherspoon," now running at the Lyric Stage, harks back stylistically to "The Actor's Nightmare", with a single character careening through a metaphysical adventure. Director Scott Edmiston, whose Fall production of "The Women" for Speakeasy just won IRNEs for Best Play and Best Director, couldn't have found a more ideal title player than Paula Plum, who just picked up another Best Actress award at this year's IRNEs for Lyric's "...The Goat." Plum, who's created seven one woman shows as well as appearing for the ART, the Huntington, the Gloucester Stage, and the Lyric among other companies, easily draws her audience into this fantasy which carries her from suicide into Bardo, the Buddhist equivalent of Purgatory, for a series of unwilling reincarnations.

     Attempting to guide her is perfectly cast Mala Bhattacharya, a true diva. Marianna Bassham, last seen as Ymma in "Silence" over at the New Rep, plays two entirely different mothers, while Larry Coen, who just did Laura in "The Plexiglas Menagerie" for Goldust, is the fathers, as well as Gandalf in the finale. Fellow IRNE winner Jacqui Parker (Best New Play and Best Musical Actress) shows up as a guidance counselor but steals the finale as a really cool Jesus. The result, on a whimsical set by Janie E. Howland, this year's Best Scenic Design IRNE winner with a soundscape by Dewey Dellay, who got the Sound Design IRNE, is something to behold, enjoy, and possibly think about. Durang has zeroed in on questions not normally raised in secular everyday theatre, especially the big one; "What's next?" The epiphany he ends on seems less pat and satirical than more downbeat conclusions to his other works.

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"Miss Witherspoon" by Christopher Durang, Mar. 23 - April 21

Lyric Stage at Copley YWCA

140 Clarendon St., (617) 585 - 5678
Lyric Stage