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Also this issue: Curtain Call Poetry Commotion Visitors from Other Worlds Going, Going ! Media Frenzy War Is Hell Novel Concept |
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April 17-23, 2003
theater
 Dysfunctional family: (front) Michelle Courvais, (l-r) Dan Kern, Patrick Doran, Cecelia Riddett, Brian Delaney and Kirsten Quinn in Rosemary. |
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What American myth has done a more complete about-face than the Kennedy saga? Twenty years ago, they were heroes and martyrs. Two decades of media revisionism have changed everything. Patriarch Joseph has become the epitome of unethical drive and corruption, as well as a tyrannical control freak. The once-saintly Rose now seems a hypocrite, cloaking herself in piety to mask her own manipulation and narcissism. Those golden sons -- JFK, Bobby, Teddy -- have all been tainted by scandal.
Only the Kennedy daughters exist in relative respectability, even obscurity.
Rosemary is the story of one of those daughters. The first-born girl in the family, Rosemary is probably the least well-known member of the clan, for reasons the play makes clear. Rosie was "slow" -- in all probability mildly retarded, though a real diagnosis is now impossible. Through her early teens, she remained childlike and amiable, and under carefully arranged circumstances, she could be presented in public.
Still, she was unpredictable -- and a significant embarrassment to Joe, who could tolerate nothing less than perfection from his family. When the post-adolescent Rosemary exhibited signs of obstreperousness and sexual drive, Joe had enough. He submitted her to an experimental lobotomy.
Rosemary follows the story both before and after the surgery, and in some ways the two seem like different plays. The pre-lobotomy years (here bathed in a palette of flattering Ralph Lauren neutrals) play like dynastic melodrama. Act II turns harrowing: Harshly lit and haunted by ghosts, Rosemary now reaches for Shakespearean grandeur.
Jim O'Connor's script has a number of things going for it. It's a gripping story (and perhaps the only aspect of the Kennedy tale we haven't already heard too often). There's a fluid sense of narrative and sometimes a good ear for dialogue, which ranges from Pinter-esque staccato to elegiac rumination. A few scenes -- particularly the Joe-Rosemary confrontations -- are genuinely horrific.
Why, then, is Rosemary not entirely compelling? Some of the poetic flights feel forced, even condescending. When Rosie writes of war, O'Connor invests it with a sense of wonderment at her childlike profundity, and the whole thing reeks of noblesse oblige. More problematic, while Rosemary wants to be seen as a political play (presumably the reason for InterAct's interest), it doesn't consistently rise above the glamour-and-tragedy tone of a Lifetime movie, and as such feels opportunistic.
The InterAct production, directed by Roger Danforth, is similarly in-and-out. A few key moments are beautifully staged, but many early scenes are curiously flat. Among the actors, the parents fare best. Dan Kern is a chilling yet believable Joe; ditto Cecilia Riddett as Rose (though her accent is less Boston than Katharine Hepburn-Bryn Mawr). As the siblings, Brian T. Delaney (Jack), Patrick Doran (Joe Jr.) and Kirsten Quinn (Kathleen) are fine, though in O'Connor's script they register more as icons than real characters. These three and Riddett are also assigned additional roles in the production, which adds no resonance and is unnecessarily confusing.
As Rosie, Michelle Courvais is saddled with a nearly impossible role. At times she must appear almost normal, then suddenly slip into a state where her impairment is obvious. The second act calls for something completely different. Courvais is strongest as the older Rosie, who seems almost to watch her own actions from the sidelines. Not coincidentally, that's where O'Connor's script and Danforth's direction are also at their best.
Through April 27, InterAct Theatre Company at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-568-8079.
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