Word: susman
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...play where it is so difficult to understand what people are saying, therefore, the actors do remarkably well in surviving the onslaught of their own words. Alexis Susman, as Dora, employs the same "oh-me-oh-my" domestic manner when hanging out clothes to dry as she does in her protracted monologues about how frustrating existence is. Playing the petulant, wise daughter, complete with short skirt and skates, Alex Marolachakis as Sue, a.k.a. Squeezer (a childhood nickname), parallels the audience's experience as she constantly questions the absurdity of all that is happening ("None of my friend's parents talk...
...does it is by having one character, John (played tremendously by Bill Donnelly) as a crackpot psychic who is, or maybe he isn't, aware of the fraudulent nature of his powers. He is being goaded by Charles (Michael Stone) to steal the Miss A'.s (Alexis Susman) inheritance money...
...seems encyclopedic, but unfortunately, he sounds that way, too, Like most of the female characters in Mamet's plays, Miss A. is only half, if even that much, of a person. We can see this even in his naming of her without a real name but only an initial. Susman shows the skeptical, yet innocent and naive side to the character as best as is possible with such a fraction of a human being. To Mamet Miss A. exists only as a plot structure to instigate the play. What we learn about her is mere hearsay and projection from John...
Unfortunately, the staging, only allowing us to see the actors' silouhettes, does not show us the full extent of, say, Susman's emotional portrayal...
...while Berenger goes on for pages and pages struggling with the invasive political disease that threatens his humanity. Ionesco's script is extremely challenging, yet well-executed by both cast and crew (despite a few slow set changes). For two and a half hours Goor, Ben Davis and Alexis Susman admirably sustain all the energy and intensity their frantic plight requires as they try to stave off the advancing rhinos. But Berenger's ambiguous triumph in the final is delayed by excessive monologue that returns again and again to circular questions already addressed throughout the play...