What do you do if you are desperate to form a tribe, join a community, but nobody can stand to be around you? That’s the question that lies at the heart of The Water Tribe, Don Cummings’s exceedingly quirky drama, which is now running at VS Theater. Hannah Prichard plays Claudia, a hungry-for-solidarity gal who ends up shunned by the people she loves most. Problem is, she is so self-involved and unaware of reality that she is clueless about her impact on others. Irritating and annoying as Claudia is, Prichard works a bit of acting magic and somehow manages to make you feel sympathy for her, care about her. The rest of the play’s five-person cast delivers equally skilled performances, beginning with Christopher Reiling as Johnny, Claudia’s dim-bulb boyfriend. He and Claudia have lived together for three years, rarely going out in the evening, watching animal videos, playing sex games (“bite me on the ass, will you?”), and coping with unannounced and intrusive visits from Sydelle (Jayne Taini), Johnny’s mother. Claudia has a relative of her own, a cousin named Sonia (Alexandra Daniels), who connects with her from time to time. Sonia does her best to convince Claudia to change the way she behaves and thinks, but as we all know, your character is your fate. Once Sonia realizes that she gives up on Claudia, fleeing to North Carolina to escape her. Claudia’s only friend, a computer expert named Brian (Jon Joseph Gentry), also tries to be a good influence on her, but even he backs off in frustration. This motivates Claudia to turn to Johnny for affection and acceptance, but she goes about it in such a bizarre way, one that involves Judaism and—believe it or not!—circumcision, that even he comes to realize how batty she is. And blood-thirsty, as evidenced by the way she goes at him with a knife. The Water Tribe is one of the strangest plays I’ve ever seen, a study in insanity, but it’ll be a long time before I forget it.
