Baby. Maybe.
JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Entertainment Writer, 03/06/2003
Jeremy Jones stars as Boy, Craig Walter as Man, and Valerie Stefan as Girl in the "The Play about the Baby." "I call it a 'conversational play,'" said director Corey Douglas. "It's one of those experiences that is going to make people talk." Below: Girl (Stefan) and Boy (Jones) in a happier moment. Photos by JOE IVERSON/Tulsa World
'Play About the Baby' a celebration of uncertainty
About this baby ...
It's very much on the mind of everyone in "The Play About the Baby." The characters, for example, talk about little else.
The actors who portray these characters have more than a passing interest in this particular baby, as well.
In fact, said Corey Douglas, who is directing Theater Club's production of Edward ALBEE's play "The Play About the Baby," the first thing the cast members asked him when they assembled to begin work on this bit of theater was about the identity, even the existence, of said infant.
"They all wanted to know if there really is a baby," Douglas said. "At that time, I told them not to worry about that, let's just do the play. After about two weeks, they started asking me again: 'Is there a baby, or isn't there?' I asked them what they thought, then when it came my turn, I said, 'I don't think it really matters.' "
It's the sort of enigmatic, paradoxical answer that ALBEE himself would appreciate. After all, ALBEE's work throughout his career — from the absurdist terror of "The Zoo Story" to the corrosive drama of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," from the surrealism of "Seascape" to the abstracted autobiography of "Three Tall Women" — has been shot through with ambiguity, the seemingly solid facts of life undone by a simple turn of phrase, a slightly askew point of view.
"The Play About the Baby" is almost a celebration of such uncertainty. The four characters are known simply as Boy and Girl (Jeremy Jones and Valerie Stefan), Man and Woman (Craig Walter and Barbara Murn).
Boy and Girl have, as the play begins, produced the titular baby. At least, that is what appears to have happened: the baby cries, the baby is fed, the baby is put to rest, the Boy and Girl go off to play in the way that newlyweds do.
Onto the scene comes Man and Woman, who start out talking about a great many things before they get around to answering one of the first questions asked them.
"What do we want?" the Man says. "Well, it's really very simple. We've come to take the baby."
"Just to read the text," Douglas said, "makes this play seem very dark, even sinister. But once we started putting it on its feet, all the humor that's in the play started to come out. There is a lot of comedy in this thing. ALBEE never lets you forget that this is a play, that this is theater."
Neither, Douglas said, is it a piece of passive entertainment.
"Personally, I'm a fan of any sort of artistic endeavor that does not provide all the answers, but leaves you with only more questions," he said. "That's what this play is. I call it a 'conversational play' — it's one of those experiences that is going to make people talk. It's like this whirlwind of concepts and ideas being thrown out at you as you watch it.
"I mean, if there really is a baby, then what Man and Woman are trying to do can seem, well, evil," he said. "But if there is no baby, then maybe Man and Woman are really doing something good for the Boy and Girl, opening their eyes to reality."
In keeping with the pared-down nature of "The Play About the Baby," Douglas is keeping the physical aspect of the production equally sparse.
Rather than strewing the set with outsized baby items like brightly painted blocks and gigantic pacifiers (which were part of the play when it was performed in New York in 2001), the Nightingale's stage set will be dressed with the bare minimum of props: two chairs and a rug.
The actors themselves, however, will be a little more completely adorned. The stage directions for "The Play About the Baby" call for the actors playing Boy and Girl to spend a good deal of their time on stage in the nude.
"Well," Douglas said, "the direction actually reads, 'The Girl appears from left, naked — or as naked as the actress will allow.' We've mentally added to that the words, 'in the Nightingale Theater in winter.' After all, this is Tulsa, and the Nightingale is kind of notorious for not having heat. So we'll be using a lot of blankets."
James D. Watts, Jr., World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8478 or via e-mail at james.watts@tulsaworld.com.
THEATER
"The Play About the Baby," presented by Theater Club
When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday
Where: Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.
Tickets: $8.
NOTE: "The Play About the Baby" contains language and subject matter that are recommended for mature audiences