Usher Nonsense #46 – Prymate
Prymate - by Mark Medoff, directed by Edwin Sherin
with Andre De Shields, Phyllis Frelich, James Naughton and Heather Tom
Sets - Robert Steinberg, Lights - Jeff Nellis, Costumes - Colleen Muscha
at the Longacre
I'm so lost on this one.
A woman in her 50's, who is also a scientist, who is also deaf, steals a gorilla from
a lab in the Southwest because he is being used for research on AIDS. She believes
his treatment to be inhumane. They retreat to a mountain top. There is no fencing
to keep him there. He just sticks around.
Some time later her former lover, and manager of the scientific work, comes
looking for her, bringing along a young blonde woman to interpret, using sign
language . Funny thing - when the two ex-lovers are left alone on the stage in the
last gasp of this play, they communicate just fine alone. So the interpreter is in the
play because..... I give up.
Right. Anyway, through her interpreting, we find out about the scientists' old love
affair and the AIDS research using the gorilla. We also find out that the gorilla has
sexual urges and was in a touchy feelie relationship with a former assistant to the
kidnapper scientist. Gosh! Do you think we might see this ourselves? Why, yes!
We get to do that! Enter the interpreter to be the object of gorilla lust! What a good
reason to have her there....
And why a deaf woman who needs an interpreter? What a cumbersome device to
have people translating just so the audience can understand. The author
underestimates his viewers. We found out more about the plot in the first few
moments watching the scientist and gorilla communicate than we did in much of the
remaining action. Put a deaf character onstage and let us see how it really works -
lots of action and a shift in the importance of sound. Take a chance on that, for
goodness sake.
I also give up about why a gorilla. Was this done just for shock value? Well, yawn,
that wears off pretty darn fast. This could have been a story about a woman
stealing any animal from a test. (Or better yet - steal a person who is being used.)
The one issue of merit that is raised is why do we have the right to test on animals
to begin with. Who gave us that right, and what harm to we do? And why there is
a man playing a gorilla? Andre De Shields is a wonderful performer - but a gorilla is
a big, intimidating, and dangerous hunk of animal. De Shields is none of these
things. He is elegant, and precise, and more feline than anything else.
It's one of those productions where I think, "OK - who was the first person to have
this idea; who was the second person to hear about it; and who was the third
person who failed to stop the first two?"
©2004 Tulis McCall
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |