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| Photo By WOMEN’S THEATRE INITIATIVE |
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King Mitzi (Gary Warden, top) turns his feline attention to Mr. Loveland (Chris Guthrie).
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Jennifer Haley's fantasy play,
Dreampuffs of War, offers an off-kilter perspective on the motivations for combat. Perhaps her point of view is dead-on. But it's a new take. That's why the Women's Theatre Initiative annually reads an array of plays by and about women, selecting one for a full-fledged midsummer production.
Haley's play has four characters: Lorna (Mary Tensing in a valiant but understated performance), a young woman going off to fight in a unnamed war; Ellie (wacky Shannon Rae Lutz), Lorna's over-the-top mother; Mr. Loveland (manic Chris Guthrie), Lorna's geeky neighbor; and Mitzi (Gary Warden), Lorna's cat.
You read that right: Haley has an actor playing a cat, and Warden is bizarrely amusing. Dressed in silk pajamas and a robe, he lounges around Lorna's apartment, staring into space, napping and eating. Each character dreams about Lorna, war, love and sex -- but Mitzi's fantasies are the most droll.
I enjoyed Dreampuffs and appreciated the various levels of social commentary: The cast is strong; each scene has the pattern of a comic sketch with a blackout. Most are delivered with skillful timing.
What didn't work for me was Dream-puffs' cumulative effect -- and especially its conclusion. It's obvious that war is having a deleterious effect on Mr. Loveland, Ellie and Mitzi: They're starving to death and fighting over kibbles and bits. It's also easy to see the analogies between combat and sex, and the parallel psychology behind them. But the same joke happens over and over. In the final scene, Lorna's return home from the war with food and a baby on the way. What that means was not clear to me. It felt inconclusive and not continuous with previous scenes. Perhaps it's still a work in progress; Haley has been in town to work with the director and cast as they stage her play.
Dreampuffs is worth seeing, to be sure, but go with a sense of watching a promising playwright hone her craft, and you'll be more satisfied with the results. At the very least, you'll love the cat. Grade: B-
DREAMPUFFS OF WAR, presented by the Women's Theatre Initiative, continues through Saturday at the Columbia Performance Center.
