Oft-produced playwright Adam Rapp's The Edge of Our Bodies (his Finer Noble Gasses was in the 26th Humana Festival) is a mesmerizing, beautifully written monologue for the astonishing Catherine Combs, perfect in every way as Bernadette, a precocious 16-year-old who takes off without permission from her New England prep school to make a surprise visit to her 19-year-old New York boyfriend to tell him she's pregnant.
As she reads aloud from her journal and later drops it to wander the stage, Combs portrays people she encounters, including boyfriend Michael's elderly father, a female bartender, a 44-year-old man who picks her up at the bar, and the character she plays in Jean Genet's The Maids at her school. She's painfully self-aware throughout, saying at one point "I am living someone else's life
the life of some stupid desperate girl in a raincoat who likes to tease and lie to strangers." Rapp directed his intermissionless play.
Opened:
March 22, 2011
Ended:
April 3, 2011
Country:
USA
State:
Kentucky
City:
Louisville
Company/Producers:
Actors Theater of Louisville
Theater Type:
Regional
Theater:
Actors Theater of Louisville
Theater Address:
316 West Main Street
Website:
actorstheatre.org
Running Time:
75 min
Genre:
Drama
Director:
Adam Rapp
Review:
Cast:
Catherine Combs (Bernadatte), Mike Burmester (Maintenance Man).
Critic:
Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
April 2011
