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Wednesday, Dec 03, 2008
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| Sensuous and romantic By The Waters of Babylon a refreshing experience | |
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| by Rajkhet Dirzhud-Rashid -
SGN A&E Writer BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON DIRECTED BY RICHARD SEYD STARRING SUZANNE BOUCHARD, ARMANDO DURAN SEATTLE REPERTORY THEATRE THROUGH MARCH 2 On the surface of Richard Schenkkan's sensuous and touching play By The Waters of Babylon, there are simply two people - one a Latino gardener (Duran) and the other a wounded, middleclass Texas widow (Bouchard), who meet and discuss the mess her garden has fallen into. Under the surface of this delightful play, there are issues of race, class and differing histories being weighed, brought to light and after this, a surprising healing. Catherine (Bouchard) wants to come across as a cynical, tough survivor who ignores the gossip of neighbors we never see, but who are alluded to by Catherine. Arturo, who at first sees himself as "merely the gardener," hired to do a job, wants to get this job done as quickly as possible and leave. Both people have so much more going on that it only takes a few mojitos to tear down the walls between them, and both are spilling out secrets about their lives to each other, and eventually finding themselves being more than employer and gardener. The only problem I had with the play was the fact that after a cathartic scene which ends up with the two in Catherine's bedroom, things get a bit muddier. Catherine explodes into a rage that seems to come from nowhere, even going as far as to pull a gun on her new lover. We find out through a long, teary confession that she is an abused wife, and the husband she'd talked about earlier was a brutal abuser who she watched die after he had a heart attack. Arturo (Duran) tries to comfort her, but she'll have none of it, at first. Then - too fast, it seemed to me - they're doing a "visualization/healing" exercise together, pretending they're walking to the ocean. And all is well between them again. Just seemed to happen a little too suddenly after all of that sturm und drang. All of that said, Waters is a lovely, romantic play and offers some interesting insights about the human ability to survive even the most horrific events. The set is gorgeously realized, offering a perfect backdrop to this very emotionally intense drama that builds like a rainstorm, then tapers down to a mild mist. Go see it and be open-minded enough to see the beauty in this play, even with its small flaws. For information tickets and times, call: 206-443-2222, or go online to www.seattlereprep.org. |
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