Motherhood. Sisterhood. Boyz in the suburban ‘hood. When it comes to hoods, Coleen Hubbard gets it.
The local playwright proved it 15 years ago with her modest “Motherload,” which introduced two 30-something siblings, and she proves it again in “The Raft,” which revisits these not-so-disparate sisters as they face the challenges that come with turning 50.
Hubbard’s smart little sequel distinguishes itself with a lyrical command of language, keen sense of rhythm, specific observations and sharp ear for dialogue in its initial staging by the Modern Muse Theatre Company. In a stroke of good fortune, the theater has managed to reunite much of the original cast.
Marta (Gracie Carr) has clung to her bed for three days, stricken by a profound (though humorous to us) case of empty-nest syndrome. Poor, ordinary Marta’s two stoner sons are happily off smoking and skiing their way through college, her clueless husband, Peter (John Gaydeski), is preoccupied by the impending opening of a restaurant, and she is rudderless. Her bed is her raft and life preserver, her sustenance a sea of wine and chocolate.
Blowing into this picture like a gale-force wind is busy sister Elan (Martha Harmon Pardee), a multi-career, overachieving control-freak with problems of her own. So set is she on getting her adopted Korean daughter into an Ivy League school, she has forged her application essay. Though you can see Elan’s comeuppance coming 1,500 miles from Yale, Pardee makes it one rubbernecking crash you not only want to slow down for but buy popcorn.
How good are Carr and Pardee? Hubbard has drawn these women at their whiniest, bossiest, frumpiest and shallowest – yet they win us over completely. That’s fine writing, and even better acting.
Yet Hubbard’s nicest bit of theatrical business is “The Gaze,” a three-person chorus that acts as the voices inside her characters’ heads. The impeccable trio of Julia Elstun Payne, David Russel and promising young Erik Holum mesh with precise comic effect, seducing the audience into giggling at their acerbic outbursts even though their very presence is plainly a subversive force in Marta’s life.
So far, so good. Up to now, “The Raft” isn’t trying to be revelatory or to say anything that’s particular new. It’s a nice little story about two sisters we have become deeply invested in.
And that’s why watching the last 30 minutes go fundamentally adrift so heartbreaking.
This requires a small though not ruinous plot spoiler: The best scene has eldest son Barney (Holum) announcing his girlfriend is pregnant and they will be married. After Marta’s expected freakout, Barney says he knows he’ll be OK because Marta and Peter had become pregnant with him while they were still kids in college, and look, things turned out fine.
It’s an unexpected moment because it’s so sweet, so poignant and so mathematically impossible. If Marta’s tripping about turning 50, and she got pregnant in college, Barney should be closing in on 30, not 22.
Worse, the play careens to a dead halt in an overextended and ill-fitting scene in which the cast exchanges repetitious email and text messages that don’t move the story along.
Worst is realizing that until now, Hubbard has left Elan off-stage for nearly the entire second act, which makes her eventual downfall feel rushed, like a tacked-on afterthought.
But at least she gets an ending. Marta has a few more go-rounds yet with a loser hubby we never cared about, so things just kind of amble to an ambivalent, unsatisfying end. Really, this play climaxes with Marta’s realization that being a parent doesn’t end the day your kid moves out. So, who cares whether Peter comes around?
Modern Muse is to be encouraged for bringing a new, local work to life. But “The Raft” deserved a fuller development process that could have identified its flaws.This well-intentioned staging serves as another reminder to all companies that the difference between developing new work and simply staging it is the difference between whether your raft comes apart or arrives safely on dry land.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
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“The Raft” ***
DRAMA|Modern Muse Theatre Company|Written by Coleen Hubbard|Directed by Jim Hunt|Starring Gracie Carr and Martha Harmon Pardee|At the Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo St.|THROUGH FEB. 26|8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays|2 hours, 10 minutes|$12-$20|303-780-7836 or modernmusetheatre.com. Note: Staged readings of the prequel, “Motherload,” at 8 p.m. Thursdays and 3 p.m. Saturdays ($10).
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