Kathryn Chetkovich’s She Said, She Said is light years away from Albee’s work. Instead, here are two contemporary couples, plus a couple of women friends, still very caught up in the progress, or consciousness anyway, of the Women’s Liberation many years back.
The women meet in a bar in a college town in northern California. Nina (Dee Dee Friedman) unmarried, appears to have a chip on her shoulder as regards the male sex. She works for a battered women’s organization which is having problems getting funding. Always ready with cynical one-liners, she can be counted on to introduce hard-headed, and sometimes hard-hearted, reality into the group’s discussions.
Jamie (Shelley McPherson) is in the process of getting a divorce from Ross (Mark Hofmaier), who has been dating another, younger, woman. Claire (Julianne Carpenter) lives with Dan (Tom Berdik), who happens to be Ross’s brother and Jamie’s brother-in-law. CoCo (Ashley Anderson), the waitress, is a friend of the other women. CoCo is young, sexy, and ever practical. Aware of her attractiveness to men, she makes the most of it, wearing tight, form-fitting work clothes. Nina remarks that CoCo’s boss makes her dress that way, but CoCo contradicts: “It’s for the tips.”
Tension enters the discussion, as Jamie tells of a recent incident. It happened after she and Ross had celebrated their son’s graduation, and she had invited Ross up to her place to pick up some things he’d left there. Things got out of hand, Jamie explains; she implies strongly that Ross forced himself on her. The others are shocked.
Later, at Claire and Dan’s apartment, a mild power play takes place, with Dan gently but unmistakably asserting his dominance. Gradually, Claire reveals the alleged incident between Ross and Jamie. Incensed, Dan denies that such a thing could ever happen; his brother is incapable of it.
Now and for the rest of the play (and beyond, maybe) Claire’s loyalties are stressed. Whom should she favor? Jamie, her close friend of many years? Or Dan, her husband-to-be and father of her child?
A crucial situation arises: An important job opportunity has arisen for Ross, and Claire is in a position to put in a word for him. How she chooses to handle the situation tells reams about a person’s objectivity and fairness, how one can look at a situation from several, differing points of view, depending on one’s internal, though denied, bias.
With their soon-to-be-realized marriage in the offing, Claire and Dan sit, a bit on eggshells, so to speak, realizing that they must somehow learn to handle their often unspoken conflicted feelings—that is, if they want their relationship to weather the upcoming storms that life will undoubtedly present to them.
The play’s ending has a sense of ambiguity, but isn’t that true to life? How many of us can be really secure in our relationships? Divorce statistics confirm that point.
“She Says, She Says” is an interesting examination of man/woman relationships, albeit presented on a somewhat light level. The stakes could have been higher; more could have been done to make the production more theatrical, with, perhaps, more interesting choices by director Peter Sylvester. The actors, however, were excellent, with Dee Dee Friedman taking highest honors for her tart, focused delivery.
Set designer Mark Symczak does a very nice job in utilizing a small stage space and for creating unique and attractive scene changes.
She Said, She Said
WorkShop Theater Company
312 West 36th Street
Tickets: (212) 352-3101 or www.theatermania.com
Running Time: One hour, 10 minutes, no intermission
Closes: April 4
