Playwright: Susan Goodell. At: Genesis Productions at the Alley Stage, 4147 N. Broadway. Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1900048; $30. Runs through: Dec. 20
Three into one won't go unless you divide a character into three parts, as in the film The Three Faces of Eve, Edward Albee's play Three Tall Women and now this world premiere by Susan Goodell. Hope Throws Her Heart Away is an 80-minute monologue about an unattached womannot old but not a kid anymoreportrayed by three actors. I'm not certain why Goodell chose this structure, but perhaps the troika is meant to represent rational Hope, emotional Hope and intuitive Hopeor something like that. It didn't leap out at me, but perhaps I wasn't listening hard enough.
It's more a performance piece than a play, the type of personal examination which The Sweat Girls and Teatro Luna have been creating for years, but here extended into a long-form work for three actors. It quickly sketches Hope's life from her earliest memories and impressions, through school and young adulthood to the present, with the focus largely on the adult Hope. She's someone who's eager to try anythingyoga retreat, poetry slam, blind dates, new shoes, hiking club, hip bar scene, stand-up comedy, pet ownership and fashion makeover, among other thingsbut never seems able to focus, choose or perhaps commit as indicated by her college major, General Studies. As a result, Hope has a career of sorts, a series of short relationships and many experiences but she never seems to have a life.
Goodell's style is highly theatrical, by which I mean the language is shaped for performance and not a stream-of-consciousness screed. For example, in addition to playing Hope, the three actors briefly take on other personas, such as Hope's bestie Marcy ( a friend from childhood whom Hope sees as perfect ) and boss Liz. A male voiceover occasionally interrupts to introduce the poetry slam or comedy open mic. Director Elayne LeTraunik also has added selective sound effects. Together, these devices give the performance texture and variety.
Hope Throws Her Heart Away makes many sharply funny observations and comments, but comedy is most effective with an audience and the house was small at the show I attended. The actors deserve better. Katie Binger, Tricia Rogers and Lily Sauvage are physically different in voice, figure, height, hair color and length but clearly enjoy each other's energy, and you will, too. They are costumed ( by Rafaela Valderrama ) in black dresses and shoes to emphasize their one-ness.
"This above all, to thine own self be true," Shakespeare wrote, and that's precisely what Hope is trying to do in this gentle voyage of discovery ... once she comprehends that she has lacked self-truth all along.