Extremities
Extremities By William Mastrosimone
Directed by Paul Castaneda
Staring Stephen Lima and Jennifer Bonner
G.O.A.T. Theatre, Winter Park, FL</strong>
If you have any remain shreds of post-holiday Bon Homie or even some Good Will Toward Men, this show ought to wipe that smile right off your face. Marjorie (Bonner) is hanging out in her jammies at the remote farm house she shares with her roommates Terry (Cara Fullum) and Patricia (Caitlin Bowden Carney.) While they’re off slaving at their day jobs, Raul (Lima) bursts in. He’s got some cock and bull story about an old debt but he’s been stalking the girls and had big plans. Soon we’re rolling down a road of assault and attempted rape and kidnapping, and it’s a highway Lima takes to a fearsome and brutal height of ecstasy. His ecstasy that is, I was squirming in my seat. Marjorie resists, but he’s strong and has the jump and a knife. In the mayhem Marjorie discovers one weapon to fight back with, and soon she has Raul hogtied in the fireplace. Now vengeance is hers, and when her friends return they, too must suffer this righteous anger.
As dark, viscerally disturbing GOAT productions go, this is the darkest I’ve seen. While Bonner is no slouch in the sexy – flirty domain, its Lima’s raw animal energy that overwhelms the women and the flaws in the script. Even when Bonner is in command, whacking the fireplace with a hammer or poking the eyes out of the captive Lima, he never loses control, even when he prays to Mary and justifies his action by excuse of a pregnant wife. You might even feel sorry for him, as do Patricia and Terry, but he’s as evil as anyone I’ve seen on stage.
Yeah, the plot has some gaps, that’s typical when the object is a heaving gut reaction rather than the dry intellectual crime fighting intellect of a Holmes or Marples. Why are these three women living in g a remote farmhouse, and why do they seem to dislike each other so much? More importantly, once Bonner has Lima hog tied, why doesn’t she just bash him with the Chekhovian hammer and escape? Other than needing to fill out the second act, motivation seems constructed for the writers plan as opposed to what a reasonable rape victim might do to save herself. But save all of this though for drinks afterward, when these people are working you’ll be cowering.
For more information on Greater Orlando Actor’s Theatre, please visit http://http://www.goatgroup.com/
