It’s
easy to get fooled by the indicia, if you’re an informed clue-spotter, and I
am, and fooled I nearly was. There’s no named producer above the title, the
playwright is one of the performers, and there’s a passionate author’s note in
the Playbill that could easily be
mistaken for a vanity production rant. To all outward appearances, Rinse,
Repeat is one of those you learn to be wary of—but get past the packaging
and it’s a surprisingly worthy and worthwhile effort.
The
program note states that the author never intended to
be a dramatist, but became increasingly frustrated as a theatregoer, that plays
were not being written about eating disorders, and the impact of the condition
on sufferers and families.
On the one hand, this is a somewhat odd perspective.
It’s a bit like saying Why haven’t I seen
a play on animal rights? or Why
aren’t there dramas ripping the lid off gerrymandering? Surely the answer
has to be, Because someone has to be the first.
On the other hand, Domenica Feraud,
who is decades too young for it, has asked this question inadvertently charged
with the spirit of 1950-1970, those being the decades
most prominently associated with issue-oriented dramas and TV movies, that
broke taboos and brought controversial subjects into the light, as JP Miller
did with alcoholism and treatment in Days
of Wine and Roses; or as Richard Levinson & William Link did, to
humanize the plight of being openly homosexual in mainstream America, with That Certain Summer. The earlier live
dramas often gave way to movies and even a few stage adaptations (Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose comes
to mind), but television seems to be the natural vehicle. And indeed, upon a
quick Googling, television movies have dramatized eating disorder aplenty.
But, equally charged with her own experiences, and
drawing upon her own Ecuadorian-American background, Ms. Feraud
has sought to deliver a story that combines kitchen-sink realism with
poetic-theatrical technique…and if the endgame isn’t a great American drama, it
can at least hold its head up proudly for having a unique personality.
Set in the house of a fairly well-off Greenwich,
Connecticut family, it tells the story of 20-year-old Joan (Florencia Lozano), returning home from
a treatment clinic to her parents Rachel (Ms. Feraud),
Anglo-born Peter (Michael Hayden)
and semi-disaffected slightly younger brother Brody (Jake Ryan Lozano), and the impact that has on a family that has not
yet faced all of its own demons squarely. Also along for the ride is Brenda (Portia), a formidable, miss-no-detail
clinical social worker from the treatment center, who appears in dreamscape and
later in reality. Insofar as such stories can be plotted, Ms. Feraud has deftly engineered her reveals to also illustrate
the classic pathologies of the syndromes involved.
Well-acted within understated direction by Kate Hopkins, Rinse, Repeat is an unexpected Summer sleeper that deserves a
decent NYC run and a long regional/community life.
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