The Virgin Mary sues God the Father for rape

by Ken Satayoshi

That sure got my attention! I took the bait, and got hooked by Joy Bingham Strimple. She plays the grandmother ghost in a dialog of reminiscence with her granddaughter played by Victoria Hunt that runs parallel to the litigation line.

Action alternates without scene change between the Virgin Mary plot upstage and the retrospective discussions downstage. At first I was disturbed by Ms Strimple's imitation of Katherine Hepburn. She seemed to be a Parkinson's Disease victim performing in a silent movie, especially with pallid makeup, and black and white costuming. Then I realized that my mother was beginning to exhibit the same behavior before she died earlier this year.

Meanwhile the Virgin Mary story line proceeds through labor with dialog with a cleric (a bit of an anachronism) who refuses Mary sanctuary. I found the chorus of nuns an interesting touch of Greek tragedy. Then Mary screams her way into the courtroom scene with God which was a bit of comic relief for me. And finally, the birth, a relief for the audience as well.

Now back to the juxtaposition of two generations of feminism separated by half a century or so. It is an interesting experiment to contrast the anger of today's gay women against the repressed emotions of closeted lesbians of say, the post-World War II era. We learn how each generation interacted with their families, and related to their straight and gay peers.

I found Ms Strimple's eyes to have quite a range of expression from intense and piercing through the 'hell of regret' to that little old lady with the 'rusty smile'. Ms Hunt plays the 'diesel dyke' with strength and conviction. Scottie Scott is the Virgin Mary in shrieking labor, but sometimes between contractions, she fails to project her words to the audience. God/priest is ably played by Stephen J Craig, not quite Charleton Heston, but what can you do as a faceless voice, backlit and backstaged. Individually, members of the chorus seem neglected by the director. Still, it is a successful first production, in addition to the directorial debut for Ms Perini.

Planet Earth's ever-present lally column is disguised as a boulder. Seats are still the uncomfortable formed plywood school chairs that wobble, but at least, they are cushioned and tiered. Unfortunately, the current production closes tonite, but I am looking forward to more from the Perini/Herring team.

Hosanna in the Highest
a play by Laraine Herring
directed by Carol Anne Perini

Planet Earth Multi-cultural Theater
525 East Flower St
241-1828
closing 9/25/96
M-W 8pm Su 7pm

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