PRINTWhat DO women want?
MU’s theatre department explores the ancient question
CLARE BECKER
Claire Archer is caught in a moment of passion with potential soul mate Tom (Michael Gioia) during a rehearsal.
April 2, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Women want sensitive but macho men. Women want men who work but also take care of the kids. Women want men who cook dinner and wash the dishes. These paradoxes have caused men to ask themselves, “What do women really want?” Women continue to have absurd standards, and men rarely find the answer.
A cast of nine MU theater students will perform The Verge to explore the psychology of women. Director Cheryl Black says she chose this play for an MU performance because she loves a challenge. She has been interested in the playwright for about a decade.
What: The Verge
When: April 2 – 4, 8 p.m., April 5, 2 p.m.
Where: Corner Playhouse
Cost: $7
Call: 882-PLAY
Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Susan Glaspell and produced in 1921, The Verge is considered Glaspell’s most intricate work (it is about women, after all). Glaspell and her fellow playwrights helped usher in modern American drama, Black says. “They were the cutting edge. They did outrageous things and took great risks artistically: masks, abstraction with art, music and poetry.” To illustrate, Glaspell used her creative license by inventing words that weren’t used at the time. As costume designer Mary Frances Hodson says, lead character Claire Archer is “frustrated with life and looking for ‘otherness.’”
The main premise is that Claire feels trapped in her conventional marriage. “It’s clearer what she doesn’t want,” Black says. Claire is discontent with her roles as wife and mother. At one point, she mentions something about getting out, to which her husband replies, “Get out where?” Claire mischievously replies, “Where you, darling, will never go.”
There are other men in her life who unsuccessfully try to figure out what she wants, Black says. “All these men are constantly trying to find out, ‘What’s wrong with you? Let me fix it.’” Typical.
To prepare for the role of Claire, sophomore Mallory Raven-Ellen Backstrom studied Katharine Hepburn, who she says is a Claire-ish character. Backstrom describes Claire as an incredibly troubled woman. “She is aware that there is more to life than the life we have been limited to by society,” Backstrom says. “There is a way to break free of everything that’s holding us.” As a horticulturist, Claire uses flowers as a metaphor about her own need to get out. In one scene, she says, “I want to give fragrance to Breath of Life — the flower I have created that is outside what flowers have been. But no definite fragrance, no limiting enclosing thing. Reminiscent of the rose, the violet, arbutus — but a new thing — itself.”
Black says the question of what women want is open to interpretation as the curtain closes. Stage manager Madeline Bender seems to agree. She finds the show a little complicated. Viewers could analyze the play as either a product of women’s psychology, Claire’s pure defiance of her stereotypical role in society or simply a woman going mad. “It really depends on how you look at it,” Bender says.
However, viewers will learn a little something, too. “In one sense, it’s an entertaining and vivid history lesson,” Black says. “It says a lot about gender, sexuality and personal relationships.”
Backstrom adds that she wants the audience to understand the play. “It is a valiant and brave and beautiful attempt to revolutionize the world,” she says. “It’s a play that raises questions about love and life.” Although men will likely never understand women, this play might provide a new perspective.
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