They weren’t scheduled to be a trilogy, but seeing Pre-Existing Condition, The Ford/Hill Project and Obit in short order amounted to attending a series on the theme being women responding to abuse by men.
Written by Marin Ireland (one of our most gifted actors), Pre-Existing Condition is, as she has acknowledged, substantially autobiographical. After being assaulted by her boyfriend, the character called A is at a loss as to how to respond. She wants some kind of restitution, but what form would that take? Criminal prosecution of her ex? Contrition from him? Compensation of some sort (what possible compensation would be appropriate)? Some larger acknowledgment by society that it hasn’t adequately figured out how to respond appropriately to the ceaseless violence against women by their partners?
A is written generically enough to be playable by a wide variety of actresses. I saw Lupita Nyong’o, whose elegant bearing suggested she was almost embarrassed that someone of her classiness should be caught up in such a tawdry situation. From what I’ve read, Edie Falco has persuasively played the same material, though she has made a specialty of earthy characters with working class roots. That the part may be successfully played by such different performers suggests that the producers want to make the point that domestic assault is not restricted to particular classes or backgrounds.
The presentation is fluid. There are three supporting players – Dael Orlandersmith, Sarah Steele and Greg Keller – who often simply step into dialogue with A without any introductory material. It is left to us to piece together who they are (each plays a variety of characters) and what matter is being negotiated. And we do. It is part of what keeps us in the audience engaged, because we have some work to do.
If the piece isn’t entirely successful as drama, it’s because we usually watch a protagonist to see whether they’ll achieve what they want and, as I’ve suggested, part of A’s dilemma is she isn’t sure specifically what that would be. Which is, in itself, thought-provoking.
The Ford/Hill Project features Elizabeth Marvel (another of our most gifted) in a piece she co-created with Lee Sunday Evans (who directed). As its title indicates, the script intercuts the testimony Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford gave in two sessions separated by decades in which they testified to the unfitness of the characters of men who were being considered to sit on the Supreme Court. Despite what they said, both Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh were confirmed and currently sit on the court, mostly supporting the policies of a president who himself has been certified as having committed sexual offenses. Similar to Pre-Existing Condition, members of the cast play multiple parts and the scenes transition at a moment’s notice.
In contrast to A in Pre-Existing Condition trying to figure out what she wants, Hill and Ford know what they want – to keep men from being confirmed whose characters they think don’t merit the honor of Supreme Court positions. Despite the more than a quarter of a century between the two hearings, the juxtaposition of the two testimonies makes the point that the Senate as an institution seems to have learned little. Those of us with an awareness of history come in knowing the outcomes of these hearings, so there is no suspense. But then, we know the outcome of 1776 when we enter the theater, too.
Ford and Hill can get no satisfaction through the system. Rebecca Chace’s Obit features a woman who, having no hope that the system will be of any help, decides to get redress for injuries on her own. Maya Hawthorne is a reporter for The New York Times who arrives on a college campus to interview the college’s president in preparation for writing the obituary that will run when he passes on. Philip Stern, the interviewee, has a mixed record – he has had some success as an administrator but his personal reputation and his record as a theater director (which is more important to him) are less than shining. Stern sees the interview as an opportunity to make a case for his legacy. The reporter has other ideas. From the start, we suspect that Hawthorne’s interview will not be a conventional one.
Chace has boxed herself in a bit because the audience can’t help but anticipate where the play is going. (Max Wolf Friedlich’s recent play Job was similarly structured as an encounter that was ostensibly a therapy session but turned out to be a young woman seeking revenge against an arrogant, condescending older man.) That said, the characterizations are effectively drawn, offering Richard Topol and Carolyn Holding the opportunity to indulge in entertaining cat-and-mouse maneuvering. Chace has added another element by setting the play in the not-too-distant future when much of our infrastructure has gone to shit. (I got a particular laugh out of the idea that in the future only the rich students will have the privilege of being taught by living teachers as opposed to AI.) There is also a hint that the decline of America may be linked to allowing self-centered mediocrities administer too much. It was amusing to learn that Chace herself has written advance obits for The New York Times.
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