Looking for Normal
Looking for Normal
By Jane Anderson
Directed by Tom Larkin
Staring Cira Larkin and Tim Bass
Breakthrough Theatre, Winter Park FL</strong>
Its one thing when you husband leaves for another woman, another when he leaves for another man, but it’s downright awkward when he swears he loves you but wants a sex change. After two kids and nearly paying off a mortgage Roy (Bass) and Irma (Larkin) drop by Reverend Exposition (Larry Stallings) for a little marriage tune up. She’s menopausal, he’s a Cultivator Inspector for John Deer, and you can guess his secret. I’ve rarely seen anyone so unsuited for that transition as Roy and the weird thing he’s not even bi-curious. That would be too simple, people today understand even if they don’t approve. Irma throws him out, his boss (Jim Huber) fears for his safety, and his roadie son Wayne (Justin Scarlat) debates coming home for the holidays vs. disowning his dad. Only Roy’s proto-lesbian daughter Patty Ann (Tianna Stevens) is excited: now she can wear his old clothes and they can paint each other’s nails. By intermission, everyone has reached the depth of hell and the audience is in mortal fear of another icky sex lecture from Patty Ann. Only Roy Senior (Bill Horine) is unaffected, he can hide behind senility. Thank you, Beta Amyloid!
This story has deeply touching moments as well as a few crunchily uncomfortable ones. Larry Stalling plays very Larry Stallings-like man of God and he gives a surprisingly decent sermon complete with torturous biblical logic. Cira Larkin’s scorned woman made me think she had actual ground truth on the topic and Mr. Bass is one of the few people who makes Michael Wanzie seem attractive in drag. While he was weakly motivated, his performance was sincere and convincing. Supporting this magical misery tour we have a very funny Mr. Horine as the Cranky Old Guy and Karen Edwards Hill in a flammable wig as his longsuffering wife. The interesting role went to Katrina Tharin as Roy’s dream bisexual grandmother Ruth. She left her husband and son in Ohio to fight in WW1, faked her own death, and lived the demimonde lifestyle of inter-war Paris. Her slick suit and oily delivery made her hover on that knife’s edge between attraction and repulsion as playwright Anderson asks us to consider whether Roy’s strange compulsion is hereditary, or was it driven by some lack of proper firmness in his parenting?
When we weren’t debating nature vs. nurture or how a husky transgender Midwestern Lutheran can learn to shop for clothes properly while tearing apart his family, we see a steady stream of furniture and dishes slide across the stage. I felt genuine sympathy for Roy and Irma and all the people they loved and devastated, but a spare stage and quicker scene changes would have woven at tighter viewing experience.
For more information, please visit http://www.breakthroughtheatre.com
