'Extremities' derives shock value from its subject

Extremities, ably directed by Kate Sandberg, SY '98, seeks to take an avant-garde approach to the subject of rape. Unfortunately, since the audience has been pre-programmed by society to respond in a certain way in the subject matter, it makes it difficult for the production to get off the ground. While it succeeds in provoking emotion from the audience through vivid, intense verbal exchanges, it becomes clear by the middle of the play that this reaction is due almost entirely to the act of rape, and not what the characters are actually saying.

The play opens with silence, as Marjorie (Abigail Sendrow, TD '00), a very average, non-descript woman who spends her days reading beauty magazines and painting her nails, walks around the house. Preoccupied with a wasp that has flown into the room, she doesn't notice as a sketchy stranger named Raul (David Tittle, MC '99) enters. When Marjorie confronts the intruder, Raul proceeds to disconnect the phone and attempt to rape Marjorie.

This first scene is exceptionally disturbing (especially in a setting as claustrophobic as Nick Chapel), thanks entirely to the subject matter and the actor's performances. Marjorie manages to blind Raul with bug spray, and then proceeds to tie him up and hold him hostage by locking him in the fireplace. Her feelings of anger than take hold of her and she tortures him until her two roommates come home from work.

Marjorie's roommates (Kameka Dempsey, BR '99, and Julia Heaton,

CC '98) return to the house to find Marjorie poking a blind man with a fireplace poker, and the three women argue whether or not to call the police. It is during this middle section of the play that the flaws of the script begin to show themselves.

As the three women debate how to deal with the attacker, it becomes clear that each woman personifies one of society's standard and accepted reactions to rape. Juxtaposed with Marjorie's anger are her roommate's clichéd reactions of misplaced sympathy and unfounded blame.

The play begins to lose momentum during this stretch, as the script systematically runs through all of the typical reactions to rape. The play treads water for so long, it seems, that one would be able to leave the theater for half an hour and return without having missed anything substantial. Finally, the play picks up again for the last stretch. As the focus returns to the interaction between Raul and Marjorie, Sendrow and Tittle regain their initial energy level and end the play on a solid note.

Extremities, by William Mastrosimone, tries to take an original approach to the different feelings and emotions connected with rape, but ultimately falls short of its task because there aren't many new or original ways to respond to such an undeniably horrific crime. Although the topic inherently lends power and emotion to the production, the play falls short in the end as it becomes especially apparent that the audience's reaction is spawned not by the script, but instead by the idea of rape. A truly great script would have sought to provoke a deeper level of understanding of a rape victim's emotions. Unfortunately, Extremities seems content to offer the audience nothing more than the textbook portrayal of a rape victim.

While there's no doubt that the feelings and ideas presented in the performance are valid, a better play would have tried to go beyond the trite characterizations that one might expect from an afterschool special.

The script's faults aside, Sandberg's production of Extremities is solid. Sendrow and Tittle both give excellent, inspired performances, and the closet-like atmosphere of Nick Chapel helps to make their portrayals even more intense and real.

While Tittle's Latino accent is a bit weak (and only barely relevant to the plot of the play), his portrayal of a man who quickly goes from being the play's most powerful character to its least powerful is both well thought out and well done. Sendrow does an exceptional job as the female lead, as she eagerly steps up to the challenge of setting the intensity level. Sandberg's direction is non-intrusive and simple--and luckily for her, the two main actors are strong and talented enough to hold the audience's attention during the slower segments.

Although the players are gifted and the direction is competent, the production cannot rise above its shallow script. Although the play does provoke emotion in its audience, it takes the lazy way out by trusting that its provocative subject matter will do the work that its script should be doing.

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