How often do you launch into something, only to find out that things don't turn out exactly the way you had imagined they would? That, in essence, is the experience faced by Lisa, the lead character in Well. She's a hip and respected performance artist, wearing skin-tight jeans and sporting a short, edgy haircut. As is often the case, her mother, Ann, is none of these things. She is a pudgy, self-absorbed, middle-aged mom. She obviously dresses for comfort, not style. And although her daughter has found professional recognition in New York, Ann is content to putter around her home in Lansing, Michigan. She is onstage for the entire play, as is Lisa.
Although Lisa sticks mainly to solo pieces, this time she is going out on a limb. She is setting the play in her hometown and invites her mother, as well as actors playing her childhood companions, to join her. As the play begins, Lisa speaks directly to the audience, telling us a bit about the piece is going to perform. Things go swimmingly until Ann (played superbly by Ruth Schudson) wakes up from her living-room recliner. She blinks and greets the audience, then bustles about trying to be hospitable. She wants to know what everyone would like to drink, for instance, announcing the options while touching her fingertips. This is not to Lisa's liking, and she attempts to quickly and respectfully restrain her mother's enthusiasm. Once Ann has settled back in her recliner, Lisa returns to the spotlight and announces that the performance is to be a "theatrical exploration" of illness and wellness, focusing on the reasons some people become ill and stay ill, while others become ill and then get better.
Unfortunately, Lisa doesn't make much progress in this attempt. She keeps claiming this is NOT a story about herself, although she sets some scenes in the allergy unit of a hospital where she stayed in college after a breakdown. Other scenes are played out in Lisa's old neighborhood, which was singlehandedly "integrated" by her mother in the 1960s.
As the scenes progress, mother Ann watches. After awhile, she begins to comment about what she's seeing. "You're leaving out too many details," she says with more kindness than criticism. At times, she notes that Lisa's memory doesn't match with the facts as Ann remembers them. All this unnerves Lisa. Worse, a quartet of actors eventually grow frustrated with the mother-daughter debate. Instead of following Lisa's stage directions, they instead show more interest and sympathy in the mother.
Lisa Kron's play was an Off-Broadway hit in 2004 and transferred to Broadway in 2006. In the Broadway version, playwright Lisa Kron played the lead character, with Jayne Houdyshell as the mother.
In this production, director Laura Gordon attempts to make sense of Kron's jumble of ideas and shifting identities. She never allows the play to spin out of control, which is to her credit. Angela Iannone provides Lisa with neurotic energy and perhaps a smidgeon of "attitude." This makes it understandable why the other actors would respond more warmly to Lisa's mother, who dispenses the equivalent of hot tea and a blanket to those around her. Ruth Schudson offers a stunning portrayal of a woman who remains as mysterious as the lifelong illness that saps her energy. Schudson is so grounded and accessible that she gives a stellar performance throughout.
The ensemble also holds up very well. The actors are faced with the lofty challenge of switching characters almost instantly. Then they have to "abandon' their characters altogether and storm off the set.
Speaking of the set, it's a mish-mosh at best. It consists of the mother's realistically decorated living room on one side of the stage. In front, there's an empty space for Lisa to address the audience. Then there's additional empty space for the moveable sets to enter and exit. The "added attraction" of a small projection screen doesn't really add much since it is perched too far above the actors' heads. It might have been more useful if placed at one side of the stage. The stage lighting enhances the ambiance and silently guides the audience's attention to different stage areas.
