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"Big Love," Big Fun and Some Big Ideas too at Berlind Theatre In Athletic Blend of Greek Classic and Modern Sexual Politics

Donald Gilpin

It's campy. It's classical – firmly based on Aeschylus's The Suppliant Women. It's contemporary – the men may be a traditional lot, but the three female protagonists are as up-to-date as current events in sexual politics or the National Enquirer. It's a stunning spectacle – full of the most eclectic music and some of the most athletic acting imaginable. And from start to finish it's packed with fun, surprises and high-level entertainment.

Presented by the Princeton University Program in Theater and Dance and directed by faculty member Davis McCallum, Charles Mee's Big Love provides an exciting first University production in McCarter's new Berlind Theatre and a New Jersey premiere for this comedy that saw its original production at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2000 and was later produced by the Goodman Theatre of Chicago, then at Brooklyn Academy of Music and elsewhere. Mr. Mee's 2002 comedy Wintertime just completed a three-week run at McCarter's Matthews Theatre.

In characteristic Mee fashion, Big Love tells its story in a surprisingly – sometimes shockingly – disjointed manner, but the story is a compelling one and has apparently been so for more than 2400 years. (The Suppliant Women, written in about 420 B.C., may be the world's oldest existing play.)

It opens as a disheveled bride, Lydia (Alexis Schulman), stumbles down the theater aisle, steps onto the stage, approaches a large bath tub on what appears to be the patio of a well appointed seaside villa, slips out of her wedding gown and sinks into the tub.

Lydia is soon followed by two – Thyona (Hollis Witherspoon) and Olympia (Rachel Koblic) – of her forty-nine sisters, who have all arrived here in Italy on a yacht from Greece and are seeking asylum from an arranged marriage to their fifty cousins. The three young women immediately break into a rousing, heavily miked rendition of You Don't Own Me, (a 1963 Leslie Gore hit).

The line between sincerity and parody in this play is a thin one, and Mr. McCallum deftly steers this production back and forth across that line from Greek tragedy to contemporary cartoon. His talented, energetic, well-rehearsed undergraduate cast of nine principals plus extras loses none of the substance nor the comedy of the play en route.

Lydia, now in a bathrobe, and her sisters, still in their well-worn wedding dresses, make their appeal first to Giuliano (Andy Hoover), a sensitive young Italian, then to his uncle Piero (Charlie Hewson), the owner of the elegant estate where they have landed.

Piero, in pajamas, slippers and smoking jacket, protests, "You know, I am not the Red Cross . . . and as much as I would like to help, this is not my business."

"Whose business is it if not yours?" Thyona retorts sharply. "You're a human being."

The debate continues – What is our responsibility to strangers who seek our help? – and rapidly intensifies, turning into gender war as the sound of helicopters heralds the arrival of the men from Greece. They land thoroughly equipped with weapons, flight suits over their tuxedoes and flowers in their buttonholes. Led by Constantine (Jed Peterson), Nikos (John Doherty) and Oed (Andy Brown), the would-be grooms are prepared to take their brides by force, if necessary. Both brutality and gentleness, hard political conflict and utter absurdity characterize this romantic comedy. There is an occasional excess of speechifying, as Constantine lectures on the violence inherent in male-female relations or Lydia expresses the quandary she is in as her heart battles with her mind or Giuliano reminisces or Thyona gets carried away in anger at the male sex. But the play keeps up a torrid pace for its uninterrupted 95 minutes and captivates the audience with what Mr. Mee describes in his script as "the over-the-top extremity of the physical world." That extremity here includes – among many other attractions – hurtling wedding presents, both female and male trios punctuated by body slams onto the stage floor, a food fight and what looks like an orgy, culminating in mass murder by a colorful variety of methods. Though it is full of verbal, physical and behavioral excesses, the play never descends to didacticism or sentimentality.

Among the actors there are no weak links. Ms. Witherspoon's Thyona is especially memorable, strong and articulate – "Boy babies should be flushed down the toilet at birth" – in leading the battle of the sexes, but also on target are Ms. Schulman's thoroughly sympathetic Lydia and Ms. Koblic's more submissive Olympia, who protests that she is not a twit (though she does find the wedding presents and the honeymoon prospects irresistible).

Mr. Doherty's Nikos is suitably charming, conflicted, and confused as the romantic lead, and Mr. Peterson delivers an acrobatic, gender-bending tour de force in doubling as the brutal Constantine and the wise, philosophical Italian mother Bella. Maura Cody lends excellent comedic support as an eccentric British house guest/wedding planner and Mr. Hewson accompanies her deftly in his second role as an Italian visitor.

Among the non-sequiturs that somehow seem appropriate in this rich pastiche must also be included Mr. Hoover's affecting rendition of Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered.

Big Love is a big production, and production values here are consistently first-rate and of high professional quality, obviously enhanced by the state-of-the-art Berlind Theatre performance space. Andromache Chalfant's set design, nicely complemented by Mark Barton's evocative lighting, colorfully captures the spirit of the entire event with its contrasting tones: the feminine (rose petals, diaphanous curtains, a beautiful blue floor) and the masculine (large classical statues above, jagged sheets of metal on stage left), with an innocuous-looking roped in patio area that later turns out to serve as a wrestling ring for the violent combatants.

Also working overtime to brilliant and richly diverse effect were costume designer Junghyun Georgia Lee, sound designer Michael Friedman and choreographer Tracy Bersley.

The penultimate scene here, like the final scene of Aeschylus's Oresteia, involves a trial in an attempt to achieve justice and wisdom, to determine where blame should fall, whether the brides should be punished for their murders, how Lydia should be punished for breaking her pact with her sisters and how this society can best move forward. Presiding over the proceedings of course is Bella (Mr. Peterson), the oracular maternal goddess figure of the play and ruler of the household. Bella's verdict, a serious core to this hilarious play, may well be a verdict for us and our times. Along with the violent grooms, the murderous brides and the negligent host, we too have been on trial here. "If we cannot embrace another," Bella warns, "what hope do we have of life?"

Big Love plays at McCarter Theatre's new Berlind Theatre Thursday through Saturday, November 20-22, at 8 pm. Call (609) 258-2787 or (609) 258-1742 for tickets, or visit www.mccarter.org.