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Muriel Vanderbilt Goes Walking

nytheatre.com review by Alyssa Simon
August 15, 2005

The description of Muriel Vanderbilt Goes Walking in the FringeNYC program guide reads, "In a dreamscape of Muriel's disturbed mind she's forced to listen to her husband's infidelities, turning to shrieks of pain as the house becomes a playground for the acting out of violent and sexual fantasies unraveling from the Juniper Tree." When I read that, I thought how tough it is for artists to describe and sell their show with only a few words allowed for a blurb; how that never really gets to what the show is about.However, after seeing Muriel Vanderbilt Goes Walking, I realize that, in this case anyway, the blurb is exactly what this show is all about. Without giving us reasons or specifics in plot, acting, or motivation, we see Muriel Vanderbilt (played by Melissa Meola) undergo hallucinations that stem from the trauma of being sexually and emotionally tormented by her husband (Barry Shaffer). I'm guessing that Dan Shanahan, the writer and director, is trying to evoke emotions in his audience that come from being confronted with the unknown and unexplainable in dreams and visions. But in executing it, as a drama, it does not succeed, because it is very general and plays only as mood.There is no physical action, no psychological gesture that creates characters. There is only style that unfortunately comes off as attitude. Muriel Vanderbilt just seems angry and her husband really mean. He sleeps with the maid (Bonita Shaffer), uses and physically abuses her as well. She in turn takes out her cruelty on the children, Boy (Becky Globus) and Girl (Jessica Huber). She breaks the neck of the boy and feeds what looks to be offal soup with bones to the girl for dinner. There is a lot that is reminiscent of Strindberg, especially the themes of the war between the sexes and class struggle, played out with violence and cruelty.In addition to the images of blood and death, there is a peasant woman played by Bonita Z who, I think, represents utter misery. She enters three times, nude, covered with dirt and/or excrement and wails. There is also a giant rabbit (Lenny Ziolkowski) who comes out, sings a song to the girl at tea, and then rapes her. But because there is no reason for this, what should startle and disturb, does not. I know it is supposed to be a fantasy in the mind of Muriel but it is unclear what effect this has on her character, because, although we see her on stage, she does not react to what she envisions.Costumes created by Geraldine Duskin and set design by Michael Lodick and Tim Sivertsen are the highlights. They create the dark atmosphere of a house of horrors. Unfortunately, the audience is left not knowing how the nightmare came to be or why.