THE HANGOVER REPORT – Jaclyn Backhaus’s WIVES quirkily if forcedly recasts the history of the matrimonial sidekick

Adina Verson, Aadya Bedi, and Purva Bedi Joan Marcus in Playwrights Horizons' production of Jaclyn Backhaus's "Wives" at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Adina Verson, Aadya Bedi, and Purva Bedi Joan Marcus in Playwrights Horizons’ production of Jaclyn Backhaus’s “Wives” at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Earlier this week, Playwrights Horizons’ production of Wives by Jaclyn Backhaus opened Off-Broadway at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. I was a big fan of the playwright’s Men on Boats, which enjoyed an encore run at the very same theater (I was much less a fan of the more recent India Pale Ale at MTC), so I was therefore looking forward to her new play. Like the previous work, Wives is a playful riff on past events, taking four points in history and recasting the narratives of various matrimonial sidekicks – among them Catherine de’ Medici and Ernest Hemingway’s ex-wives – in a satirical, topsy-turvy manner (and typically at the expense of their patriarchal other halves).

Sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint what actually makes a play and its production tick. On paper, many of the elements that made Men on Boats so theatrically exciting are also present in Wives – anything goes revisionist history-making; the quirky, irreverent script; the zestfully game cast; the heightened staging. Perhaps it’s because of the limited character development in Ms. Backhaus’s latest play – the short vignettes don’t really afford any character to take root in our minds – or maybe it’s because of Ms. Blackhaus’s reckless, untidy vision for the piece. Whatever the circumstances may be, the play ultimately left me a little cold with its mostly forced antics and sketchily realized ambitions.

The production has been directed with spirit by Margot Bordelon, who has given the play an appropriately goofy, surreal staging that compliments the text. As for the tireless cast, they can hardly be faulted; they’re all very good, skillfully playing multitudes of roles and admirably committed to going to who knows what lengths to get a laugh. That they make the play’s cosmic, somewhat pretentious coda (no spoilers here) somehow work – moving even? – is due to their inspired work individually and as an ensemble.

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WIVES
Off-Broadway, Play
Playwrights Horizons / Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
1 hour, 20 minutes (without an intermission)
Through October 6

 

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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