Review: Independence by Paradox Players
by Michael Meigs
Independence, first staged in 1983, is one of the earliest of Lee Blessing's theatre works. It's a tidy, well constructed box-set play that announces its theme open-faced with the very title.
The fact that the setting is Independence, Iowa, misleads no one. That speck on the map, population of about 5,500, stands for AnyTown, USA, or at least, AnySmallTown, USA.
Blessing probably started with a schematic diagram: small town, an intermittently crazy mother, three daughters born ten years apart. In the forced circumstances of a reunion, he has the opportunity to portray the Stages of Womankind. Evelyn Briggs is the mom, a tenuous survivor of life in Independence; Kess, the oldest, is the Mature Woman who escaped, now a university professor in Minneapolis and only incidentally a lesbian; Jo the Stay-at-home Daughter sees the prospect of dutiful daughterdom and, probably, spilnsterhood before her; and Sherry is a Luscious Good-time Girl in high school, itching to hit adulthood and the road that leads the hell out of Independence, Iowa.
The little world of women created here by Blessing, director Lisa Foster, and the well chosen Paradox Players cast is one of warmth, humor and jousting for personal space.
Middle daughter Jo brings about the reunion by warning long-gone older sister Kess that mom is off the rails again. Kess put mom away in a state institution once before, and she arrives after years away, ready to do so again. From there we participate in encounters that essentially create a family of these four women where almost none existed before.
In Howson Hall at the Unitarian Universalist Church the Paradox Players are close to their audience -- the stage is at a modest two-foot elevation and the audience occupies steel folding chairs in the meeting hall. Their play choices for their three-play season are equally close to the audience, usually stories with humor or dramatic warmth. They have an enthusiastic following and no problem in attracting audiences. This is the only theatre in Austin where I once walked up to attend a performance and was informed with gentle concern that I'd have to put my name on the waiting list and stand by for a seat.
Christina Leidel as Jo is in the center of the birth order and at the crux of the plot. Leidel creates a character who's vulnerable and full of longing, and the movement of the piece is her process of sorting out her own emotions, ambitions, and life decisions. Leidel is attractive and visibly tentative as she explores those choices. She has us rooting for Jo through a series of disappointments and challenges.
Independence moves quickly, draws us into its vivid little world and convinces us of the vitality of each of these women. Blessing recreates the heart pangs of growing up and the regrets of the family that never really existed. He leaves us with a feeling of recognition for each of those emblematic creatures of American womanhood.
This cast and staging send the audience away with a warm glow about the paradoxes of family and of winning one's own identity. And independence.
Review by Barry Pineo for the Austin Chronicle, June 9
Comments by webmaster, TheatreAustin, Yahoo Groups, June 11
Hits as of 2015 03 01: 3168
Independence
by Lee Blessing
Paradox Players
