Even with the stamp of approval of the Pulitzer Prize and the name recognition that comes with a film version that starred Joanne Woodward, Paul Zindel’s stage play The Effect of Gamma Rays in Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds is rarely revived.
It is a fragile tale of a young girl’s survival despite a bitter, abusive mother, a play that could easily be derailed in lesser hands, but you would never suspect that from viewing the assured production at Palm Beach Dramaworks.
Although Zindel gave alcoholic divorcee Beatrice Hunsdorfer two teenage daughters, he concedes that the story is rooted in autobiography. He is surely the model for bookish, introverted Tillie, who gains a modicum of recognition and self-confidence from her school science fair project, which lends the play its title.
Tillie is taunted by her sour mother and mocked by her older sister, Ruth, an undisciplined brat with a history of stays in psychiatric hospital and seizures. Tillie’s only affection comes from a pet rabbit, an animal her mother despises. Still, as the play’s title metaphor suggests, Tillie may be the positive mutation, who blossoms despite being exposed to the toxic atmosphere of her family life.
Making her professional debut as Tillie is Arielle Hoffman, a high school senior with a promising future as an actress. The play allows her little opportunity to express her inner turmoil, but she manages to do so wordlessly. And late in the evening, as she confronts her fears and addresses a school assembly about her science project, we begin to see glimmers of Tillie’s inner strength.
Hoffman is overshadowed by Laura Turnbull — who happens to be her real-life mother — devouring the role of volatile Beatrice. She is despicable to be sure, yet without softening any of that, Turnbull lets us see the humanity underneath her armor. Credit director William Hayes with deftly orchestrating his cast, including Skye Coyne as Ruth and a frail-looking Harriet Oser as Nanny, an aged boarder to whom Beatrice rents out a room to and belittles.
Virtually another character is the stunning, if drab, two-level living quarters designed by Michael Amico, further evidence that he has mastered Dramaworks’ new space at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre.
Soon after his success with Gamma Rays, playwright Zindel stopped writing for the stage in favor of a career in young adult fiction. The Pulitzer may have been excessive praise, but this drama certainly ranks high in the crowded field of dysfunctional family plays.
THE EFFECT OF GAMMA RAYS ON MAN-IN-THE-MOON MARIGOLDS, Palm Beach Dramaworks at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Through Sunday, Jan. 29. Tickets: $55. Call: (561) 514-4042.
* * *
As its title, even in its expurgated form, suggests, Stephen Adly Guirgis’s The Motherf**ker With the Hat is no exercise in genteel verbal intercourse. But if you have been waiting for a successor to frequently profane and occasionally profound David Mamet, the high-octane production at GableStage is a terrific opportunity to jump onto the Guirgis train.
The Tony Award-nominated comedy gained its initial attention last season on Broadway for its unprintable title. Yet once you get beyond that — and few followers of GableStage are likely to find the blithely scatological language much of an impediment — you will discover an engrossing play of five lost souls in search of truth, love and honor.
Of course, those are commodities in short supply in Guirgis’s world, but the fun is in their pursuit and the reflex treacheries that make them so unattainable.
The Motherf**ker begins with incurably romantic ex-con Jackie (Arturo Fernandez), recently released after doing time for drug dealing, arriving home to his cocaine-addicted girl friend Veronica (Gladys Ramirez) with flowers and candy in hand.
But his ardor turns to rage when he notices a strange hat in their bedroom and other evidence of the stranger having been in their bed. So packing a pistol, Jackie storms out in search of the now hatless motherf**ker, an odyssey that will involve his substance abuse sponsor Ralph D (Ethan Henry), Ralph’s horny, neglected wife Victoria (Betsy Graver), and Jackie’s effeminate cousin Julio (Alex Alvarez), who is eager to unleash his Jean-Claude Van Damme side for Jackie’s sake.
Director Joseph Adler has a way of coming up with the right actors for casting challenges, as he demonstrates again here. All five are top-notch, forming a forceful ensemble that navigates through the hairpin turns of Guirgis’s explosive dialogue. The standout of the company is Fernandez, whose quirky delivery of lines keeps raising the comic bar.
Profanity aside, Guirgis has his characters spout verbal torrents of surprising lyricism, though occasionally with word choices beyond their education level. The Motherf**ker seems to add up to more than it does, but the journey is awfully entertaining anyway.
THE MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT, GableStage at the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables. Continuing through Feb. 5. Tickets: $35-$50. Call: (305) 445-1119.