Theater review: Skin & Bone
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Philly playwright Jacqueline Goldinger's provocative new play is the kind of comedy that elicits uncomfortable titters and gasps, not belly laughs.
Johanna Austin
How much one considers Philadelphia playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger’s provocative new play Skin & Bone a comedy depends on where each person draws the line between funny and sick. It’s a balancing act that countless horror movies can’t achieve, but one that the Florida native, as Azuka Theatre’s skillfully produced premiere shows, handles with skill and verve.
I found the play humorous, but with a darker vibe that is deliciously complex and eerie; it’s the kind of comedy that elicits uncomfortable titters and gasps, not belly laughs.
The second in Goldfinger’s “Southern Gothic” trilogy (after the terrible girls, premiered by Azuka in 2011), Skin & Bone is set in the last play’s same creepy small panhandle town, Transfer. Elderly sisters Midge and Madge, played by celebrated stage veterans Maureen Torsney-Weir and Drucie McDaniel, live in their ancestral home, pining for the past and fending off earnest construction worker Ronnie (Nathan Holt), who arrives daily with eviction notices.
Their relationship sags with the sadness of old age, tinged with a gauzy nostalgia reminiscent of Tennessee Williams. Bitter Midge bullies meek Madge, who’s intrigued by a possible new life (and a little freedom from her sister) in the local retirement home. Midge would rather die in their former bed and breakfast, scheduled for demolition to clear the way for a new Walmart, than give in.
While Goldfinger and director Allison Heishman give the battles with Ronnie slapstick energy — Midge ambushes him with bug spray, shouting “I’ll Raid you!” — the sisters’ desperation about their impending upheaval emerges, along with a secret practice from their past that Midge longs to resume. It’s best not revealed, but let’s say it makes the predilections of another pair of sweet elderly sisters, the Brewsters of Arsenic and Old Lace (now playing at the Walnut Street Theatre), seem downright quaint. “There’s nothing stranger than family tradition,” the sisters say. Ain’t that the truth!
Hope arrives with Emma (Amanda Schoonover), a lost soul whose failure in fast food service compels her to search for evidence of her late mother, whose last diary entry — penned when Emma was 1 year old — announced a trip to Transfer. Emma soon becomes part of the household, but will she help Madge escape, or help fulfill Midge’s long-suppressed desires?
Skin & Bone boasts a terrifically deteriorating set by Dirk Durossette — stained and peeling wallpaper, with Florida’s wild overgrowth invading, delicately lit by Chris Hallenback; believably well-worn costumes by Katherine Fritz; and Daniel Kontz’s atmospheric sound design.
What’s really special, though, is seeing a great new play by an up-and-coming local playwright (who won 2012’s Barrymore Award for best new play for Slip/Shot, produced by Flashpoint Theatre Company) featuring women characters of an age too seldom portrayed, played by fine actresses too seldom seen.
Through March 23, $20-$25, Off-Broad Street Theater, 1636 Sansom St., 215-563-1100, azukatheatre.org.
