Review: Better/Worse

The three members of Odds & Ends Productions — alphabetically Amelia Henderson, Courtney Seiberling and Stacey (Morrison) Vespaziana — are able, persuasive actress/writers. That’s to judge by earlier Cincy Fringe Festival outings, notably Running My Ass Off (2006) and Britney Spears, And All the Other Shit We Have to Deal With (2005).

This Fringe, however, they stand in deep need of a stronger script and more coherent direction. Their group-created better/worse sprawls, splatters, shudders, jerks, halts, hobbles and all but implodes as it tries but fails to pry open that Pandora’s box called 21st-century matrimony.

Being that there are three of them, can you doubt that there’s one “happily” hitched wife (Vespaziana), one “unhappily” married one (Henderson) and one willfully single anti-wife (Seiberling)? But the “happy” one is a manipulative, deceiving harpy. Her husband wants children. She doesn’t.

Does she tell him that? No. She tells him that she’s stopped taking birth control pills when she hasn’t, thereby shifting blame to him when she fails to get pregnant.

The “unhappy” wife is flighty, irresponsible and the source of much of her own unhappiness.

Little Ms. Anti-Wife finds herself in an emotional scramble from which some valid and/or comic drama might be extracted but isn’t: This hooting, post-post-modern queen of find ’em, fuck ’em and forget ’em falls in love.

The three women make up the entire onstage company, so we must learn about their woeful relationships by listening to descriptions of them, not by observing examples of them. Hence, there’s too much yesterday, too little now and a single-sided second-handedness hovers over everything.

This staled quality isn’t relieved by occasional outburst of polemics and political correctness. Nor is the significance of the women’s stories particularly enlarged by the snatches of music, sound effects and axed-up segments of videotaped interviews that keep interrupting the show’s narrative flow.

Doubtless, the idea was to create a hammering, shimmering collage of impressions about contemporary marriage. What they made is a mess.

In a program note, director Brian Lady asks, “How does one, in our culture of quick consumption, rectify the images, words, opinions, songs, text messages (and) sound bites that we receive without participation on a daily basis into an understanding of self and of partnership?” Great question. Too bad Better/Worse doesn’t answer it.

— Tom McElfresh

Comments

[Dan Davidson]

I happen to disagree with My McElfresh, as happens to ALWAYS be the case.

Normally I don't read reviews, but i have actually started reading a lot of his because they all seem to reek of some kind of egotistical crap which has very little to do with the Story he CLAIMS to be reviewing.

I, for one, enjoyed the performance very much. I loved the interesting form that the piece had. While EVERY piece of Theatre isn't perfect (a thing someone should let Mr. McElfresh in on) I had a very good time at the show and laughed a lot!

One wonders why Critics even come to the Fringe... this is a world where Artists are fucking with conventions in an effort to find new truths. I pity any show at the Fringe who caters to "What a Critic might think." Mr. McElfresh is exhibit A in what not to bring to the Fringe.

A bad attitude.

Ask someone for a hug.

If no one will give you one (just guessing) I will.

For sheesh sake.

[Michael Waddell]

This review was fascinating in how off the mark it is. The show may indeed "sprawl, splatter, shudder, and jerk" along with the gripping stories of the characters' most intimate lives, but that's part of the compelling drama that unfold on the stage. One of the complex characters, who married her high-school sweet-heart and deceived him once in their long happy marriage, is called a "manipulative, deceiving harpy" by McElfish for the one lie she told. When the happily single woman falls in love, this review seems to hold it against her. It totally misses the humanity, vulnerability, and courage that the actresses display in their portrayals. The above review may inadvertently reveal much about the reviewer's personal life, but little about the content of the play.

In short, if you have trouble seeing complex performances because of unresolved issues in your own past relationships... if you think that a play should never sprawl, splatter, or shudder, and that mixed media implies an interruption of the narrative flow to which you are accustomed... then you will probably agree with McElfresh (and the Fringe Festival itself may not be your cup of tea.) If, on the other hand, you want to see a multi-faceted, experimental, brutally honest play about modern marriage, then you are sure to enjoy Better/Worse as much as I did.