February 04, 2005

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A wild ride through history

by Diana Reynolds Roome

When "The Skin of our Teeth" begins at the Pear Avenue Theatre, newscasters are announcing the onset of natural disasters and angst is rife.

Thornton Wilder wrote this play in 1942, in the midst of a war with no clear outcome. The immediate worry confronting the Antrobus family is the approach of an ice age, a situation that sounds oddly familiar as we confront the melting of ice caps and the threat of global warming today.

The major difference between then and now is that a small dinosaur (Lindi Press) and woolly mammoth (Lance Gardner) wander in and out of the Antrobus house, providing a kind of wordless Greek chorus of grunts and roars.

Frankly, it's bewildering, and it's meant to be. The play comes across rather like a lesson about the human condition taught by a somewhat nutty professor.

"I hate this play and every word in it," declares the maid, Lily-Sabina (Wendy-Howard Benham), as she flurries about in her frilly apron redundantly dusting the furniture. "I can't understand a word of it anyway."

This is reassuring only up to a point. Lily-Sabina, in a multi-layered role as maid, floozy and aging actress, becomes our comedic guide through what turns out to be a wild ride through human history. Written for the legendary actress Tallulah Bankhead, who played the role in the Broadway production, the part demands enormous energy and resourcefulness. Benham conveys a somewhat air-headed but tenacious Sabina, who both clarifies and adds to the chaos, her attitude ranging from dedicated pessimism to zany Zen as she orders everyone to "Eat your ice cream!" as the most logical way to handle a crisis.

Mrs. Antrobus (Lisa Wiseman), by contrast, is played with unfailing gravity, steely but not "the tigress" she is described to be. A combination of housewife and crusader (whose slogan is "Save the Family"), she is the archetypal long-suffering woman and protective mother, who develops "the hem, the gore and the gusset," keeps the home fires burning and forgives her inventive, philandering husband and violent son.

This role could rile modern audiences, who want to tell her to throw out blustering Mr. Antrobus (Dan Roach), who arrives at home chronically late from his commute. But the play will allow for no such thing, as this couple also represents Adam and Eve and are tied by a mysterious promise.

Meanwhile, Mr. Antrobus is soon off doing "what a man's gotta do" -- among other things, inventing gunpowder, the wheel and the alphabet -- though for a man of such vaunted energy he seems curiously ineffectual. Their hyperactive son, Henry Antrobus (John Sousa), grows increasingly delinquent, and when he is first referred to as "Cain" we know what will happen next. His evolution into the murderous tyrant responsible for an all-consuming war is chillingly convincing.

"The Skin of Our Teeth" is a play about the large human emotions and the same old stuff that keeps recurring at any point in history. The basics of the human condition never change, though the details do and these are sometimes quite eccentric: The endearing dinosaurs are cleared out of the house, Moses (Jonathan Ferro) and Homer (Lance Gardner) appear on stage, Mrs. Antrobus announces that tomatoes are edible and a universal convocation of mammals is held.

Despite a cartoon-ish aspect to the characters (who are archetypes, not individuals), this play slyly demands an intellectual response by forcing us to think about the human condition. I found it enjoyable, though the humor could have been played up more and I found myself wishing that the central character of Mr Antrobus had been etched a little more distinctively.

Wilder constantly interrupts the action to question everything, and the script is peppered with asides like, "What does the author mean?" or "Don't take this play serious [sic]." Such direct communication with the audience works particularly well in the Pear Avenue Theatre, which is so small that it's hard to create dramatic illusion here anyway. The audience, seated only a few feet away from the players, is constantly reminded of the act of acting, and aware of every detail of makeup, facial lines or a wrinkle in a hastily pulled-on stocking. The set, which conveys the prevailing sense of disorder and chaos, is put to multiple uses, and costumes seem somewhat random too. At one point, Sabina helps save the human race by collecting pieces of wood from beneath the audience's chairs.

Hopelessness threatens to take over, especially when Mr. Antrobus, back from the war and after confronting his son's depravity says, "I've lost the desire to start again ... We're always beginning again -- why do we go on pretending it'll be any better?"

But the eternal verities come to the rescue, accompanied by solemn words from a few great philosophers who put a positive gloss on surreal historical events. Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus remember their promise. Meanwhile, dreamy daddy's pet Gladys Antrobus (Kat Brower) produces a baby (father unnamed), which becomes another kind of promise -- that humankind will continue despite everything. For Mrs. Antrobus work is the eternal remedy.

But Sabina has the final answer: "Every once in a while I've got to go to the movies," she announces before assuring us, "The end of this play isn't written yet."

So the play ends where it begins, with Sabina dusting the Antrobus house and describing what appears to be a peaceful '50s scene of domestic contentment. But this time around we know that really means ziltch.

What: Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth."

Where: Pear Avenue Theatre, 1220 Pear Ave., Unit K, Mountain View.

When: Through Feb. 6. Show times are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.

Cost: Tickets are $10 - $20.

Info: Please call (650) 254-1148 or visit www.thepear.org.

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