Miss Witherspoon Weathers the Netherworld
Act Theatre's latest offering, Miss Witherspoon by Christopher Durang, is the perfect balance to their previous effort, The Pillowman. Both plays feature crucifixion talk and an impending sense of doom, but Witherspoon contains an unlikely amount of hope to counterbalance Pillowman's bleak outlook.
This hope is quite out of character for playwright Durang, but the play's first act regurgitates many of his misanthropic tendencies and then easily segues into said hopefulness. It makes sense, though. The play began as a few monologues written for a 9/11 benefit. It is from this perspective that the rest of the story came together. Durang was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama--along with The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow which runs at Seattle Public May 19th - June 11th and Red Light Winter--but, in a strange move, no prize was awarded this year.
Miss Witherspoon is the story of a misanthropic woman who dies from a piece of Skylab falling on her. She spends most of the play in the bardo awaiting reincarnation, rather, avoiding reincarnation. Why would anyone want to go back to miserable earth, she questions. Her spirit guide Maryamma tries her best to convince Witherspoon that earth isn't so bad, and after some miserable reincarnations and much soul searching, Witherspoon finally relents.
The entire cast hits their marks and their notes perfectly. They understand the balance necessary to make suicide funny and moralizing without grandstanding. Anne Allgood in the titular role never mugs nor goes for easy laughs. She shines as the misanthrope in her brown tweed suit and white sneaks, and she adroitly delivers the monologues. Christine Calfas as Maryamma works nicely as Witherspoon's foil and garners most of the shows belly laughs. Under M. Burke Walker's direction, the cast never falls out of the moment and remain genuinely engaged from scene to scene. The technical aspects even had the audience applauding--you'd have thought they were recreating the wire sequence from Aida. Its not that show-stopping, but it is definitely nice to see invention in regional theatre.
Sure, this play is nowhere near the apex of Durang's career in the late 70's and early 80's, but it is, nonetheless, a relevant and timely work deserving attention. If we were to use cliches like, "If you only see one play this season . . ." this would be the show we would say that about.
