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Supposedly

nytheatre.com review by Josh Chambers
August 15, 2005

Supposedly is a meditation on one woman’s existence at two different times in her life, both of which seem to be characterized by a numbing, almost impenetrable stasis. Playwright/director Barbara Cassidy describes the play as a “triptych in one act” with events that alternate “between the banal and the extraordinary.” The play begins with the actors reciting definitions of the word “supposedly,” as well as assorted synonyms and usage. This act seems to imply that the mission of the play is to address the nature of assumption, belief, truth, fiction, etc., and it is, to some degree, about stories and the inherent falsity of any shared narrative. Unfortunately, Supposedly is simply not able to probe these heady areas in any fashion that is either cogent or compelling.When we first encounter the lead character, Lola, she is snorting drugs in a restroom with her co-worker Amy. In the ensuing and occasionally simultaneous scenes, we are introduced to an older Lola, her husband Sam, and their teenage children Nick and Jen. The play basically meanders between these two points of view, occasionally repeating text or making incidental connections, and relying on the out-of-focus musings of each of the central characters for substance. While attempting to provoke and illuminate, it ultimately exhausts itself in non-sequitur and limp stabs at profundity. The questions Cassidy raises are well-worn, even timeless: Do you believe in God? Why bring children into a lawless world? Is nature a monster? But they are not seriously engaged either textually or dramatically, and instead are left to fester in the arena of performance as malnourished afterthoughts.The acting and stage direction are of little service to Cassidy’s bland script. Although Joanie Ellen occasionally exudes a hazy narcotic charm as the younger Lola, the performances on the whole seem under-rehearsed and non-committal. There is never a moment where momentum or tension is achieved or maintained, and the cast seems ill-at-ease with both the words and the overarching action of each scene. In her direction, Cassidy often chooses to have the characters who are not playing the scenes enact divisive yoga-inspired stage pictures which actually serve to further derail an already convoluted production.But my larger issue with Supposedly, more than the piddling details of craft and execution, is that the play is devoid of any discernible human passion. I have no idea what is motivating the play, where its ecstasies and agonies lie, or what is being sacrificed on the altar of its creation.This all being said, I want to mention one moment in the performance where I experienced excitement and possibility—where Supposedly transcends its root awkwardness and opens itself up to the chaotic dimensions that Cassidy may have had in mind when first writing the play. It is toward the end, and out of nowhere the Older Lola, Sam, Nick, and Jen are marching in place in a garish white light to the sounds of “I've Been Working On The Railroad” as Younger Lola and Amy move to either side of the downstage space to enact their final scene. The moment is so genuinely bizarre, so completely uncalled for, that it galvanizes the entire piece in a single moment of mystery and provocation. This was the kind of evocation that the opening sequence promised and demanded, and it was a gratifying end to an otherwise compromised production.