LOS ANGELES — I am beginning to believe the Fountain Theatre is constitutionally infallible. I can’t think of a play I’ve seen here that hasn’t met the highest standards of artistry, even as it tests the limits of a tiny stage and a cramped seating capacity of—count ’em—79. This company fulfills the dictum of making the very best with what you got.
Its longtime founder and artistic director Stephen Sachs has just retired, and the incoming AD is the personable Raymond O. Caldwell, who introduced himself to theatergoers at a Sunday afternoon performance. He has large shoes to fill and I wish him well.
So what to make of Alabaster in its Los Angeles premiere, a play about trauma and healing that features four females—two of them goats! It took a while to settle in to this unusual casting, but playwright Audrey Cefaly knew what she was doing. It worked: The play was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, named to “The Kilroy’s List” of excellent new plays by women, and won the Calicchio Prize. (I should mention that the two she-goats—a mother and daughter—are played by members in good standing of Actors’ Equity Association.)
Perhaps Alabaster hits home to an audience in Los Angeles which has felt so devastated by the early January multi-billion-dollar firestorm that reduced whole communities of family homes to rubble and ash. For it is in the wake of such an event—a violent tornado—that we meet a brave survivor June (Virginia Newcomb), who for the last three years has been eking out a hardscrabble existence on her tiny farm outside of Alabaster, Alabama. All of her family were lost, and she has a body covered with a glorious patchwork of scarring to prove it. Only her two beloved goats remain, the mama Bib (Laura Gardner), old and near death, the daughter Weezy (Carolyn Messina) a real spirit guide to June who chastises, taunts, encourages, befriends and supports.
Being a goat myself—a Capricorn, that is—I could relate. The goat is direct, no-nonsense, and quintessentially tellurian, a fancy word meaning grounded on the land. So long as the goats are June’s companions, they will remain on this blighted lonely homestead, come what may. But once Bib dies, Weezy announces, she’s planning to head out and see the world, and June will have to continue her healing process on her own.
June collects scraps of barn wood (there was a lot lying about after the tornado) and paints on them—“outsider” art just for her own pleasure and amusement.
Alice (Erin Pineda), a well-connected New York photographer working on a series about women with scars arrives with her camera and recording equipment. She tells of her previous subjects—women with stories of horrible accidents, illnesses and assaults who yet, over time, found peace and happiness. She’s expecting to finish up in a few hours and be on her way. But June intrigues her, and the two women warily parry and joust until, before they know it, they have both uncovered vast reservoirs of unresolved loss and pain from their recent pasts. Perhaps, each for unforeseen reasons of her own, they need one another at this critical juncture of their lives. And then, as Marvin Gaye would say, a bit of “sexual healing” could help.
After Bib dies, and Weezy starts planning her own future, avenues seem to open up to June, through Alice, that she never thought about before. Representation for her art? A gallery show? A new life in Atlanta? For Alice, too, there’s a renewed sense of confidence going forward into an uncertain future.
“I love the play’s edgy theatricality and deft mix of comedy and drama,” says director Casey Stangl. “It attacks some very complex subjects—trauma, grief and the healing power of art—with a complete lack of sentimentality that is filled with humor and humanity.”
The Southern gothic drama overflowing with surreal humor is a real crowd-pleaser that dispenses its wisdom in mystical droplets. We all carry our share of sorrow, and sometimes it pays to let a new person into your life for a change of perspective. I recommend it.
The creative team at the Fountain includes scenic designer Frederica Nascimento; lighting designer Alison Brummer; sound designer Andrea Allmond; video designer Ly Eisenstein; costume designer Rebecca Carr; and properties designer Jenine MacDonald. The production stage manager is Angela Park, assisted by Gina DeLuca.
Alabaster plays through March 30 with performances on Fri., Sat. and Mon. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Pay-What-You-Want seating is available every Mon. night in addition to regular seating (subject to availability).
The Fountain Theatre is located at 5060 Fountain Avenue (at Normandie) in Los Angeles. Patrons are invited upstairs to relax before and after the show at the Fountain’s café. For reservations and information, call (323) 663-1525 or go to FountainTheatre.com.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
