Playwright: David Mamet
At: Roadworks Productions at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St.
Phone: (773) 862-7623 X13; $22-$26
Runs through: Dec. 21
The real secret in Boston Marriage is, quite appropriately, not revealed to us until its very last moments. The secret revealed by its title is that the two women constituting its major characters are more than the 'close companions' their status as proper ladies of fashion circa 1890 force them to pretend at being (one of them even has a Daddy, as yet oblivious to his mistress' bisexual proclivities). The secret that may require several decades for audiences to comprehend, however, is that David Mamet has written a manifestly capable period-styled comedy-of-manners.
Switching genres in mid-career is a risky process. Neil Simon's initial efforts to introduce serious elements into his stories were impeded for over a decade by directors and audiences stubbornly responding as if these experiments were the same slam-bang farces customarily associated their author. Boston Marriage's setting is a radical departure from the sordid environment and petty hustlers we have come to expect from Mamet, its Looking-Out-For-Number-One dynamic notwithstanding. How a production resolves this ambiguity determines whether the actors are to play the conniving Anna and Claire as actual fin-de-siécle socialites—candid, to be sure, and not above an occasional profanity—or as hip, modern, sewer-mouthed broads tarted up in Victorian drag.
On this Roadworks production's opening night, director Kirsten Kelly appeared to be still undecided on this point. Laura Scott Wade's Claire embraces the mannerisms of her immediate milieu, while Stephanie Childers endows Anna with a truculent edge hinting at the coarseness identified with the Mamet canon. Neither interpretation is incorrect, but the resulting inconsistency makes for distractions, as does Mattie Hawkinson's nebulous performance as Catherine, the innocent—but is she, really? —maid. Hawkinson replicates her Scottish dialect admirably, but in doing so, throws away opportunity after opportunity for humor. In a three-character play, every word counts.
This is not to say that the evening is not enjoyable. Childers and Wade are actors of talent and skill, outfitted handsomely in Geoffrey M. Curley's exquisite decor and Elea Crowther's scrumptious costumes. But not until we allow the play to be more newsworthy than the playwright will a fair evaluation of Boston Marriage be forthcoming.