Word: karens
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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starring Thomas Derrah, Sean Dugan, Karen MacDonald
...chronology as they are in personality. There's an angry and suicidal Ernest Hemingway who acts as Garnett's servant, the under-recognized and frustrated feminist author Djuna Barnes, the heroine-addicted mother of Eugene O'Neil, and the aforementioned Anas Nin, played with delightfully French self-absorption by Karen MacDonald. Not to mention the entire cast of characters from The Brothers Karamazov, with Alyosha Karamazov (played with effective, i.e. not annoying, wholesomeness by Sean Dugan) serving as Durang's Everyman character in this absurdist romp...
...charming details of this play strengthen Bibi and Karen's (June Mee Kim '00) authentic performances. The minimal set includes a banner that drapes above the audience and includes us in the conflict between the jail-barred motif of the Chinese half of the banner and the American stars and stripes that is at the heart of this play. From the very beginning, color is central to the understanding of the contrasts between China and the consumerist American society with which Bibi identifies herself. Bibi comes onto the stage dressed in rainbow colors; in contrast, the only colors that...
...physical set. These images remind the audience that this is not just a play about two individuals out of time and place, but that they refer to historical events that actually occurred. The penultimate scene of the Tiananmen Square Massacre becomes real for the audience as they see Karen and her friends suffering from physical and mental pain in front of the backdrop of projected photos of the real actors and victims of Tiananmen Square...
...script is subtle and complex, and this production takes full advantage of its depth. Nor is it one-sided: as we learn from a ten-year correspondence (often wonderfully interactive on stage) between Karen and Bibi, Karen feels stifled by the oppressive Chinese regime that imposes the role of a "good citizen" on its people at the expense of the individual. Karen feels like "a beautiful bird in a cage" whose colors will never be seen nor its song heard. Reading about America and the freedom allowed in the West in books sent by Bibi only makes Karen more depressed...