Theater Review by Michael Dale . . .
Roughly twenty years ago, it seemed all the theatre district cocktail chatter was centered around the meaning of Edward Albee’s Tony-winning/Pulitzer finalist drama The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?, where a wife is emotionally crushed when her husband reveals he has fallen in love with a goat.
And even though, when probed for an explanation, the playwright would often insist that his story was indeed about a man who has fallen in love with a goat, the general consensus was that the play’s specific situation was a placeholder for any issue an audience member may relate to that might divide a married couple.
Part social commentary, part fantasy, part bedtime story, fully engaging, Sophie McIntosh’s cunnicularri quickly had me thinking that when the play’s central character gives birth to a oryctolagus cuniculus, a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (represented in director Nina Goodheart‘s crisp and attention-grabbing production by a plush toy animal), it was also meant to be a placeholder for anything else an audience member may relate to. Not necessarily something seen as negative, like your spouse falling in love with a goat, but as stated in the production’s promotional material, cunnicularri is about adjusting expectations, and as the play demonstrates, those expectations may have to do with a multitude of issues surrounding pregnancy and early parenthood.
This world premiere production by Good Apples Collective (which is headed by McIntosh and Goodheart) and Esmé Maria Ng is staged in a large studio space, with scenic and props designer Evan Johnson placing two rows of seats on two sides of a rectangular playing space. Save for the lighting equipment above, everything is white, including the walls, audience’s chairs, the curtains that create a backstage area and the play’s main set piece, a convertible couch that also is used as a bed and an examination table.
In this setting, the actors, and designer Saawan Tiwari’s costumes, pop out more to give a storybook feel to the proceedings that allows for the presentation of the newborn rabbit, named Josephine, to fit in naturally.
The script seems deceptively simple on paper. The dialogue is uncomplicated and direct with no dramatic monologues or agonizing confrontations. But there’s a deep and compelling subtext burrowed beneath the whimsical surface. That subtext is gently and effectively conveyed by Camille Umoff in the central role of Mary, who begins the play concerned that her near fully developed fetus is kicking especially hard and goes from birthing to nurturing in search of some kind of guidance to help her understand what is happening to her mind and body.
Juan Arturo is a sweet, supportive, but ultimately clueless presence as her husband Howard. Benjamin Milliken plays Mary’s flippantly insensitive OB-GYN, whose explanation for her rabbit birth suggests a blasé willful ignorance towards the workings of the female body: “Women’s bodies can be quite mysterious. I suppose sometimes these things just happen”.
Milliken doubles as Mary and Howard’s neighbor Greg, who revels in the suburban masculinity of being able to afford top of the line lawn mowers and outdoor grills.
And while her intrusive mother-in-law Gladys (Jen Anaya), tries offering advice, it becomes clear what Mary feels on her own when it comes to her particular difficulties in breast-feeding (Josephine was born with sharp teeth) and even just making eye contact with her child. Umoff exudes lovely comical pathos in scenes where Mary, alone with Josephine, struggles to make herself feel a bond with her child.
But when it comes to expressing Mary’s mental and physical anguish, Willow Funkhouser stages Umoff in jarring wordless solo movement interludes, where lighting designer Paige Seber, sound designer Max Van and composer Maria Shaughnessy create visual and audio nightmares to represent her pain and the blasts of emotions she’s unprepared for.
Though there is no time period designated in the script, late in the proceedings a character uses a landline rotary phone, suggesting cunnicularri may be a look back at how things were for new mothers in the late 20th Century. Have matters improved since then? I wouldn’t be the one able to tell you.
While Sophie McIntosh has yet to have what would be considered a major New York production of any of her plays, I would consider her Macbitches, about how patriarchal college drama programs create toxic conditions among women students, to be one of the best new plays I’ve seen in the past several years. cunnicularri has secured my opinion that Sophie McIntosh is an exciting playwright to watch for, and hopefully her work will soon be displayed in higher profile productions.
cunnicularri. through July 13 at Alchemical Studios (50 W. 17th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues). https://www.goodapplescollective.com/
Photo: Nina Goodheart Photography
