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Patty Cake

nytheatre.com review by Maggie Cino
August 15, 2005

Patty Cake is inspired by the story of Patty Hearst. In it, we meet the infamous Patty Cake. Is she a debutante-good girl or a fearsome revolutionary terrorist? Her lawyer, Baker, is trying to find out. Patty is childlike at the start of the play, lost, slightly touched, hiding under the table playing her own game of patty-cake. Her lawyer tries to coax and bully her, to amuse her by drawing puppets out of his briefcase. But things change quickly, and Patty gains control by tying him up or suddenly growing up and becoming a fierce, seductive woman. During the course of the play, the two of them pretend to be everyone from Patty’s mother to her kidnapper to the man she killed.The piece is obviously trying to ask questions about identity. Is Patty a good little girl or a bad little girl? Is brainwashing possible, or was there a part of Patty herself who wanted to do all the terrible things she did? Are her problems all her daddy’s fault? Does she have an identity at all, or just a story that can be appropriated by others?The mood and pacing of the play is comedic, which makes it difficult to get inside of the characters or their situation. Ken Prestininzi’s script and direction demand an academic approach to these very personal questions. As Patty, Laura Caputo has the elegant look of a society girl along with a touching quality of awkward innocence. David Hanbury as Baker handles all the character and power shifts with aplomb. But ultimately, Patty and Baker are simply constructs used to abstract and simplify the story of the iconic Patty Hearst.Who is Patty? According to Patty Cake, no one knows, really; no one can sift through all of the stories, media, reinterpretation, protection of her family, her “brainwashing.” At the end, Patty herself escapes, leaving us with only her media image. But this play establishes that on almost every level Patty was lost to begin with. It intimates that she achieves her freedom and finds her identity when the world becomes so distracted by her celebrity that it leaves the woman in peace, but there is something unsatisfying to this conclusion. The issues that led Patty to her brainwashing are still in place. Her father looms large in more ways than one. And so although her freedom is intellectually satisfying, emotionally we suspect that things are not this easy.The action happens on Pannill Camp’s wonderful orange set, the color of death row and hazardous materials. Patty’s jumpsuit and various other scenic elements and costume pieces set the color scheme as well as the overall tone. Though there is something cold and brutal about this world, a certain element of danger is missing. Patty Cake takes political, idea-oriented theatre as its stylistic model. But while using an unknowable icon to question identity and celebrity is a logical choice and a brave risk, as a theatrical experience it left me wanting more.