It's all in the chase

Where is the line between romantic pursuit and stalking? When does interest become intrusion?

Playwright Rebecca Gilman incisively explores the nature of stalking in her play, Boy Gets Girl, which is at the end of its New England debut run at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell. Charles Towers directs and actress Gloria Biegler leads the cast as the protagonist Theresa Bedell.

Boy Gets Girl is about an intelligent, independent woman who has more than succeeded in her fast-paced career as a journalist, but does not enjoy the same success in her personal life. Isolated from her family and having few to no social relationships, she accepts a blind date with a guy named Tony.

Mimicking the standard awkward procedure of every failed date, the two are clearly not suited for a relationship -- at least by Theresa's standards. Her subsequent rejection of the bumbling, seemingly benign Tony ignites a situation that quickly and uncontrollably escalates into one in which a threatened and vulnerable Theresa must choose whether to abandon her life in order to save it.

While the plot may be in many senses typical to the situation, it serves as a stable framework from which the singular characters discover the weakness within themselves. The physical absence of Tony after the exposition highlights the psychological menace that he has become to Theresa. Unable to cope as prey, she becomes shrill, defensive, and unprofessional as her sense of self quickly crumbles under the weight of her paranoia. She badly handles a simple interview with a laughable soft-core porn director, Les Kennkat, which reveals how Theresa feels increasingly threatened by all the masculine figures in her life. Her behavior only increases her sense of isolation, and she becomes an unflattering caricature -- harassed, brittle, afraid, and hostile. Could she possibly be "afraid of intimacy," as Tony contends?

Mercer Stevens, a coworker of Theresa's, guiltily admits that he had entertained his own crush on her, and at one point attempts to tactfully remark that a certain conception of traditional romance is based on an assumption that the suitor demonstrates his devotion through pursuit. Does a man have a natural instinct to pursue? These questions deepen the play and highlight the complexity of the issue.

Charles Towers is the artistic director of the production and a cast that collectively boasts nine decades in the Actor's Equity. After having joined Merrimack Repertory in 2001, he has directed several productions such as The Drawer Boy, The Woman in Black, Fallen, Gun-Shy, Short Haired Grace and Three Days of Rain.

This is Gloria Biegler's debut with Merrimack Repertory Theatre, but she has experience on Broadway with roles such as Cordelia in King Lear. She was awarded the Drama-Logue Award for Best Actress for her role in Great Day in the Morning, and has made television appearances in Law & Order, All My Children, One Life to Live, and Guiding Light.

The cast also includes Kyle Fabel as the stalker Tony, Jim Mohr as Less Kennkat, the aging lecher, and Derek Stone Nelson as Theresa's colleague Mercer Stevens.

Gilman has become known for her willingness to explore controversial issues. Her play Spinning into Butter explores cloaked racism at a small New England college, in which an intellectual must come to terms with her own cultural biases and limitations. The Glory of Living is an affecting character portrait of desensitized perversity, in which a socially-stunted young woman procures random girls for her and her boyfriend's erotic games, which result in the ultimate murder of each girl.

Gilman has received favorable reviews on her work, and has received several awards in recognition of her talent. The Glory of Living garnered the Joseph Jefferson Citation for Best Play in Chicago and the American Theatre Critics Association's Osborne Award for the Best New American Play. At the Royal Court Theatre in London, Gilman was recognized with the George Devine Award and is the first American ever to be honored with an Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright.