The Impact Theater is looking for new plays
from Brooklyn playwrights. Lord knows we can use some new talent.
Unfortunately, either in desperation or in a misguided enthusiasm,
Impact Theater has chosen for its initial presentation of homegrown
talent "Not for Women Only" by Alan Magill.
"Not for Women Only" has a long history. Magill says
he began writing it eight years ago and "soon after it was
put in the proverbial bottom drawer."
For some reason, Magill took it out of that bottom drawer a few
years later and began revising.
The play had its first reading as part of a comedy writing workshop
Magill was offering in Brooklyn College’s continuing education
program. Last year, two monologues from the play were presented
as part of Magill’s vignette play "From Bags to Riches"
at the Kings Bay YM-YWHA. A while later various rewrites were
read by actors in Magill’s playwriting group at the Kings Highway
Library. Finally, Magill read about Tim Lewis’ Impact Theater
in GO Brooklyn and submitted his play.
Four months later Magill got a thumbs-up from Lewis. Now, eight
years after Magill first put pen to paper, the final product
is onstage at Impact Theater, directed by Louis Solomon, a Prospect
Heights resident.
The question this reviewer asks is how did the play get through
so many readings and rewrites? How were so many people involved
with its development, without someone saying, "Wait a minute,
this ain’t ’Death of a Salesman,’" (a play which Magill
quotes, by the way)?
What’s wrong with "Not for Women Only"? Nothing that
a different plot, better dialogue, more acute direction and another
cast couldn’t help.
"Not for Women Only" is about how two members of a
women’s consciousness-raising group deal with their feelings
about men. June (Bridgett Ane Lawrence) has a hatred of men that
seems to be based on antagonism toward her philandering father,
Edgar (Ron Parrella). Serena (Ali Costine) has somewhat more
muted negative feelings, induced perhaps by the fact that she
keeps getting beaten up by her husband (a prize we never meet).
It all comes to a head when Serena, having had her consciousness
raised to unprecedented heights, deliberately runs over a man
while driving to June’s birthday party. To complicate matters,
June’s father has chosen this day to attempt a last-ditch effort
at reconnecting with his daughter and makes a surprise visit
during the party.
The guy Serena hit turns out to be Eric (Mike Gannon), a friend
June had invited to her party. Despite being thrown 30 feet,
he manages to survive.
Edgar turns out not to be June’s father, but a softhearted Good
Samaritan who married her mother when he discovered she had been
impregnated by a man who had no intention of marrying her – an
experience she found so traumatic she never again wanted to have
sex.
There’s more, but why bother?
All this might not be so bad if the dialogue wasn’t cliched,
repetitive and moving at a pace that would allow a competing
snail to win the Olympics.
To make matters worse, much of the dialogue consists of monologues
addressed to an invisible character or the audience, conversation
between two people on either side of a door, or one person chatting
with someone over the phone. None of which is very helpful when
it comes to establishing relationships on stage. On the other
hand, it’s easy to see why it took the author eight years to
complete his play. He needed the advent of ubiquitous cell phones.
The play doesn’t seem to have a costume designer. If it did,
that person might have dressed the philandering father in something
more attractive and appropriate for his character than a sloppy-looking
jacket and sweater.
Finally, for some incomprehensible reason, Solomon chose to make
one scene change so fastidiously long, that I would have clocked
it if I’d known from the beginning he was planning to break a
record.
With so many things going wrong, it was hard to tell whether
the cast was holding up its end. Given the nature of the material,
one suspects the play could only have been saved by a totally
camp interpretation. Unfortunately, although the play does have
its comedic elements, it’s clear the playwright and director
want us to take "Not for Women Only" seriously.
After so many rewrites and readings, perhaps it’s best that the
author let "Not for Women Only" go. Leave the play
behind and go forward with the lessons learned. Tomorrow is another
play.
"Not for Women Only" runs
through Aug. 5; Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday
at 3 pm. Tickets are $15. The Impact Theater is located at 190
Underhill Ave. For more information, call (718) 390-7163.
