Okay, so maybe they aren’t ideal parents, what with wrapping their baby in a pile of laundry and not really knowing its sex for years, but at least you can laugh at them.
The latest production from the GAMUT professional theater company is Christopher Durang’s Baby with the Bathwater, written in the ‘80’s and produced in New York. Its on stage at the June M. McBroom Theater (302 Campbell Avenue SE) October 3-5 and 10-12 (Thursdays through Saturday both weeks) at 8 pm.
“Imagine, if you will, the most awkward of awkward family photos, add a dash of farce, a pinch of hostility and a touch of insanity,” wrote one reviewer previously. “Durang keeps laughter bubbling. We laugh and gasp at the same time,” wrote the Wall Street Journal.
Directed by Big Lick Conspiracy veteran Ami Trowell, Baby with the Bathwater features a large ensemble cast, led by Owen Merritt and Linsee Lewis, who portray a struggling young couple dealing with the ups and downs of marriage and parenthood. Lewis (Helen in the play) said her character goes from one extreme to the next, “flipping out” in one scene, screaming in another, while lying on the floor, happy as a lark in other circumstances. Lewis found the play “absolutely hilarious” and full of things you would like to say – but wouldn’t dare to, “in regards to your baby.”
Merritt (John) said its not that he and Helen are bad parents, its just that “we’re inept at being people. We just don’t know how to be us, much less raise a child.” What will people think about when they walk out of the McBroom Theater? “That its funny. [But] its not really a play that you take life lessons from.” Adds Lewis: “[Its] more of a not to-do list.”
“This is my first GAMUT production,” said Trowell. “Its really about [these] new parents that have failed to identify the gender of their new baby. So they guess and essentially they guess wrong.” In fact “Daisy” turns out to be a boy and much of the play deals with the aftermath of not raising him as one. Trowell surmises that “Baby” is reflective of Durang’s own upbringing, adding that the playwright’s parents “did know his gender.”
Problems with landing jobs and alcoholism add to the family tension over the twenty-year range of the play. (Local attorney-actor Patrick Kelly plays “Daisy” as an adult). Trowell said Baby with the Bathwater was originally a one-act play; Durang was given seven weeks to write a second act, which Trowell said is actually the stronger of the two acts on stage.
Elizabeth Kelley portrays Angela, sitting on a park bench with Helen and another mother with seemingly poor parental skills as well. Like many women when they get together, it turns out to be competitive. “We’re not really friends or anything. We know each other but we’re just being competitive.” Kelley “loves” Durang’s humor and the meaning behind “Baby”: You grow up hoping not to be like your parents, have a child of your own and boom – there you are – you are your parents.
“Hopefully [theater patrons] will say well, at least I’m doing better than that,” chuckles Trowell; “they have messed up – but at least I didn’t mess up that badly.”
Baby with the Bathwater tickets are $10 on Thursday nights, $15 on Friday-Saturday. Students and active military get in for $5.00. For reservations and information call GAMUT at 540-676-1415.
By Gene Marrano