Theatre in the Raw put on its annual nighttime play Friday, Feb. 11, and Saturday, Feb. 12, in the MacArthur auditorium. Fish with Fur, directed and produced by Abigail Williams, featured performances by Jenna Fitzgerald, Paul Fletcher, Ashley Legg, Jessica Mahoney, Samantha Montgomery, and Patrick Schamber.
The program took its name from a line in the evening’s first play, act I of Creation of the World (and Other Business) by the recently departed Arthur Miller, to whom Friday’s performance was dedicated. Creation, along with the program’s second play, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, by Chris Durang, developed a theme concerning questions over organized religion.
Creation, detailing the story of Adam and Eve, treats the two as maturing adolescents, possessing childish naivetí© and doubt about their existence. Paul Fletcher, dressed only in flesh-colored tights, injected scads of energy in capturing Adam’s ignorant innocence, invoking a disturbingly good laugh when he began sniffing Eve up and down and replying to God, in childlike disgust, “She smells funny!”
If Adam and Eve are the children, then God and Lucifer are their parents. Despite his long hair, goatee, and “Jesus Is My Homeboy” t-shirt, Patrick Schamber’s portrayal of God shied away from a laid-back father image but instead embraced an authoritative and at times even immature persona, as he jumped up and down like a petulant child waiting for His children to multiply.
Ashley Legg obviously had a lot of fun as Lucifer, God’s better (or worse) half, giving her character an overly ambitious and professional demeanor. Wearing a red business suit, Lucifer approaches the multiplication problem calmly, yet behaves as an indulgent mother in opposition to God’s protective father.
The second half, Sister Mary, is a lighter story than Creation, at least at the beginning.
Samantha Montgomery is the star of the performance as the Sister, whose stony, haughty appearance advances an excessively strict interpretation of Catholicism. Her comments come off as satirical rather than frightening, even when discussing the infestations of lice and sexually transmitted diseases awaiting the “modern-day Sodoms” of New York, San Francisco, “and basically any city with more than 50,000 people.” Amazingly, Montgomery is able to keep a straight face when answering written questions from the audience such as: “Was Jesus effeminate? Yes.”
The story continues with a play-within-the-play, acted out by Sister Mary’s former students, portraying the crucifixion of Baby Jesus on a miniature cross and a talking camel named Misty.
However, Sister Mary then takes a darker turn as the former students speak directly about their problems, including alcoholism, spousal abuse, and rape, which are not fashioned as comedy but rather as tragic problems brought on by the nun’s pitiful teaching style.
When the darkness reaches a climax, Sister Mary changes back to comedy, but this time, the darker comedy clashes with the earlier silliness as Sister and student pull out guns. Nevertheless, the play at least had a powerful ending proving that the confrontation with her former students had not changed the Sister or Catholicism for that matter.
Additionally, the audience continued laughing from the remainder of the play to when they finally left the auditorium, especially at the overactive bladder problems experienced by one of the Sister’s students, played by Schamber.
