THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 11, 1995 TAG: 9502140496
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
``I WANT TO SEE India my way, from a comfortable seat, somewhat at a distance,'' dowager Margaret Civil says at the outset of her two-week vacation in deepest, darkest India.
It is this distance that keeps us too comfortably in our positions as onlookers for most of ``A Perfect Ganesh,'' a play that is certainly obsessed with its darkness, if not so much with its deepness. This is a play about guilt, bigotry, homophobia, AIDS, repression, serenity, transcendence, bitterness, anger, religion, destiny and the terrible, terrible world in which we all must live. If this seems a bit much for one plate, or one evening, you get the idea that Terrence McNally's play is all over the place.
``A Perfect Ganesh'' is currently being given a superb production by Virginia Stage Company. The production is marked by stunning, and quite original, set designs by Dex Edwards; state-of-the-art lighting by Kenton Yeager; effective costuming from Susan E. Mickey; and a thoughtful, carefully etched reading from a highly talented cast, directed by Charlie Hensley.
Two 60-ish women from Connecticut temporarily flee dull marriages for an adventure to India. We expect their lives to be changed and we expect probing. We pull for these sad women all the way, but we are eventually fatigued by arty departures from reality and the sheer nihilism of it all.
Along the way, the two women encounter lepers, starving masses and a mounting collection of misfortunes.
Their boat on the Ganges bumps into rotting human bodies. One of the women finds a lump in her breast. They both mourn, in memory, the deaths of sons. One was killed by gay bashers on the streets of New York. Now, his mother swells with the guilt that she never accepted his homosexuality. The other woman remembers the death of her 4-year-old son - a death she has kept secret.
It is a cruel and capricious universe we face, especially from a playwright who is known primarily for his urbane and witty humor. He is the author of such raucous works as ``Lips Together, Teeth Apart,'' ``The Ritz,'' the wonderfully literate ``Lisbon Traviata'' and the current Broadway hit ``Love! Valour! Compassion!''
The journey is lightened by the sweet, impish presence of the Hindu god Ganesha, brightly played by David McCann, who is becoming the most frequently seen actor at Virginia Stage Company. Done up in a green, pot-bellied body suit with the requisite elephant mask (designed by Santo Loquasto for the original 1993 New York production), this is a benevolent god.
Jane Moore is a wonderfully believable gray-haired presence as Katharine, a woman who seeks to experience and sample everything life might offer. It is she who is the adventurous one who goes fearlessly onto the poverty-infected streets of Bombay. She has the play's most chilling moment when she fights back at what she feels is an unjust world by shouting bigotries into the air. It is she who keeps us sticking with what eventually becomes a rather muddled and unstructured play.
Deborah Mayo seems a bit young for the matronly role of Margaret Civil, but she gives it a starched exterior while fighting against involvement and seeking to keep the world at a distance.
Sam Guncler contributes a host of characters, from airline attendant to saucy servant to American tourist. In a variety of accents and attitudes, he demands watching.
The writing is, at best, confusing - and not because it is so complex. By now, most playgoers are accustomed to stream-of-consciousness in memory scenes. The journey is needlessly abstract when, for example, in the second act, Katherine dances with her dead son in a dream sequence, only to have Margaret cut in and have the ghost change to her son, even though he died while still a small child.
While the production is such a joy of craftsmanship, there is one, perhaps minor, lacking in the sound category. In a scene that depends greatly on the threat of an impending crowd, there is hardly any crowd noise. The sound technician is not in the same league with the lighting and set designers.
In spite of a particularly eye-filling production, ``The Perfect Ganesh's'' journey is eventually unfulfilling - leaving us always interested, and often intrigued, but just as often uninvolved. McNally's play seems to urge us to seek hope while it promises us a world of sustained hopelessness. MEMO: THEATER REVIEW
What: ``A Perfect Ganesh,'' the drama by Terrence McNally
Where: Produced by the Virginia Stage Company at the Wells Theater in
downtown Norfolk
Who: Directed by Charlie Hensley, featuring Deborah Mayo, Jane Moore,
Sam Guncler and David McCann
When: Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 5 and 9 p.m.,
Sundays at 2 p.m. through Feb. 26, with a special performance Sunday,
Feb. 19, at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $10 to $30
More information: Call 627-1234 by CNB