Only Three More Days to See Unique "Peeling"!

The women of Peeling (Ken Holmes)

Peeling

Sound Theatre Company

Through August 24, 2019

“Three disabled actors walk into a play…” A unique production, both in style and substance, is being produced by Sound Theatre Company. Peeling, by Kaite O’Reilly, a playwright known for her focus on and inclusion of disabilities, uses a play-within-a-play structure to introduce us to the Chorus.

The first noticing an audience sees are three mounds of fabric fixed on stage. Differently colored and layered, they appear somewhat like beehives. Then, as a vocal announcement and written projection demands that they appear for the start of the play, three actors appear and climb inside the mounds which become the belled bottoms of great gowns.

The women are all disabled in different aspects: Alfa (Michelle Mary Schaefer) is deaf, Coral (Carolyn Agee) uses a wheelchair and Beaty’s (Sydney Maltese) aspect is one that may not be visible beyond her short stature.

They are performing as the Chorus in a version of a play called The Trojan Women: Then and Now. Trojans is largely a polemic against war and a description of the ways in which Troy was destroyed and its citizens slaughtered and its women raped. These chorus women were apparently cast so they fulfilled some attempt by “theater management” to be inclusive and check some kind of “social justice” box of do-gooding.

At least, that is what these women feel, as they gripe about their placement against the back stage wall and bitingly criticize the company and stage management. Coral tells the others that the bathroom is so far away from the stage and the dressing room that it’s easier for her to “hold it for four hours” than it is to seek a toilet.

Over the course of ninety minutes, the actors recite their choral lines and stand waiting for their next cues. Their gowns are peeled back, first to a blood red layer and then to the metal structure (bones?) below. Similarly, their conversation peels back the layers of their personal pain, particularly around pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood.

There are moments of dark levity. While much of the dialogue is also projected onto screens behind the actors, it’s not an easy play to read or to absorb. Still, it’s a fascinating ride and all three of these actors give 110% of themselves.

It is unavoidable to hear about the devastation of war. There are descriptions, both verbal and written, speaking about “mounds of bodies” and limbs strewn about. A striking and repeated refrain is about how some mothers enticed their children to dance and sing until they were led over cliffs to their deaths to demonstrate another way mothers tried to care for their children – helping them avoid more trauma and fear by choosing an easier death for them than the kind soldiers would choose.

If you have been longing for a different theatrical experience, this is definitely that. The cast is of people not usually included in casting, the play is visually arresting and the ping-ponging between the “other play” they’re performing in and their personal relationships is engrossing.

For more information, go to www.soundtheatrecompany.org or call 206-880- 3947.