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A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
Manner of Trust
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You can't have my pain. I need it.
--- Dr. Beth Cooper |
Bo White's strong dark play is a brutal depiction of what happens when trust is broken . Here we have what appears to be your typical dysfunctional family: vicious lecherous stepfather, alcoholic willfully oblivious mother, vulnerable pre-teen brother and sister who are the victims of their sadistic parents.
The story unfolds in a hypnotherapist's office where attractive Dr. Beth Cooper works with Doug Hill, who has been assigned to her by the probation authorities. Doug has stolen 17 computers and donated them to various schools. Now a man in his 30s, he has repressed the bitter childhood memories that have destroyed his life.
Doug initially talks so fast, with so much nervous laughter that it's sometimes hard to catch all his words. This disability fades with the laughter, as Cooper regresses him to scenes of his early life. He's a studious 11-year-old child with a 12-year-old sister, Ashlee-Jo, who wants to be a singer. Their mother Marilyn denigrates her voice but stepfather Al tells her whatever she wants to hear if she'll let him kiss her. He brutalizes Doug, forcing him to clean urinals and pick up garbage with his bare hands and breaking the neck of his pet bird. Al and Marilyn sometimes talk bitterly of their own emotionally deprived childhoods, laying the groundwork for characters who never learned what love was.
Dr. Cooper, recently widowed, rejects Doug's defensive attempts to parry her analysis by trying to learn more about her. It's a secondary theme, stressing the importance of the analyst's technique and objectivity in bringing traumatic memories to the surface. The quote at the top of this review indicates a profound, though from an analyst not necessarily realistic, reaction to those who try to salve wounds that are too deep too soon.
Under Jon Lawrence Rivera's astute direction, the play builds to a searing climax, underscored by unnecessary thunderclaps. In a powerful performance, Frayne Rosanoff as Doug holds the stage and plays the ends of Doug's character, young enough for the child, defensive enough for the adult. Diane Perell as Marilyn catches the acerbic terror of an aging woman with no resources she can accept but her husband. James McMurray shows moments of Al's own childhood pain that are the core of the monster he becomes. In the performance viewed, Elia Saldana is touchingly vulnerable as Ashlee-Jo. Exotic Yassmin Alers plays Dr. Cooper as depressed and repressed.
John H. Binkley has designed an excellent set, augmented by Kathi O'Donohue's lighting. Playwright Bo White has spoken openly about the autobiographical elements in his play. What he needs to do now is write another one. It will be interesting to see what he does with strangers.
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MANNER OF TRUST Playwright: Bo White Director: Jon Lawrence Rivera Cast: Yassmin Alers, Lou Mulford (Dr. Beth Cooper), Frayne Rosanoff, Bo White (Doug Hill), Nicole Stewart, Elia Saldana (Ashlee-Jo Hill), Diane Perell, Janet Hoskins (Marilyn), James McMurray, Robert Callow (Al). Second cast performs May 7 and 21. Set Design: John H. Binkley Lighting Design: Kathi O'Donohue Costume Design: Shon LeBlanc Sound Design: Bob Blackburn Running Time: Two hours, one intermission Running Dates: April 21-May 28, 2006. Where:. The Underground, 1312 N. Wilton Place, Hollywoos, Reservations: (213) 627-4473. Reviewed by Laura Hitchcock on April 30, 2006. |
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The Internet Theatre Bookshop "Virtually Every Play in the World" --even out of print plays