Imagine the horror a doting wife experiences when, while laundering her husband's clothing, she discovers a foreign streak of pink lipstick on his dress−shirt collar. Now prolong that traumatic moment of disillusionment by two decades, amplify the exquisite shock tenfold and substitute run−of−the−mill adultery with lesbianism and a very messy mother−daughter relationship.
The result is Michael Towers's "Five Down, One Across," presented by Boston Playwrights' Theatre. This coming−out play on steroids forces audiences to closely examine their own interpersonal relationships and question whether it is possible to ever really know anyone.
The offbeat heroine of "Five Down" is Betty (Chloe Leamon), a wiry, middle−aged academic whose closet harbors more skeletons than Carrie Bradshaw's spacious walk−in could ever accommodate. Until a spot opens up in a desirable nursing home, Betty is forced to shelter her 85−year−old mother, Madeleine (Alice Duffy), in her unvarnished house in Brookline, Mass. Though she looks grandmotherly, Madeleine is one tough cookie, made unpleasant by her recent development of Alzheimer's disease.
Prior to her mother's arrival, Betty promises her girlfriend, Sharon (Stephanie Clayman), that she will finally come clean to her mother about her sexuality and her relationship with Sharon, along with a slew of remaining secrets. For weeks, Betty procrastinates carrying out the unsavory task.
But no more: It's "Taco Night," a regularly held ladies' gathering at Betty's — that in no way involves Mexican cuisine — and her friends are ready to do whatever it takes to get Betty to admit her secrets to her mother. And there's a twist. Or two.
While the plot is a veritable humdinger, the set is a bleak snooze. Though Betty purportedly leads an interesting life, her surroundings in no way reflect that — her living room might as well have been decorated by the bland hack responsible for the Hilton Homewood Suites. This unimpressive backdrop places an immediate burden on the actors to liven up the stage and bring color to the performance.
They bring color, all right — in Kitten's (Ellen Peterson) case, every color of the rainbow, as proudly evidenced by her "I'm not a lesbian, but my girlfriend is" T−shirt.
Peterson seems to thoroughly enjoy portraying this loudmouthed ragamuffin; she is all at once filled with bravado, appallingly crass and childishly sulky. Though Kitten's provocative personality would rankle in the real world, Peterson knows exactly how to play this braless rascal. She sends theatergoers into paroxysms of laughter as she cavorts wildly across the stage.
With rare exception, the rest of the cast performs with adeptness on par with Peterson's. In fact, the success of "Five Down" owes much credit to the actors, who are given the tricky task of compensating for an inconsistent script.
"Five Down" is Towers's first full−length play to be produced, and his greenness leaks through at points in this mostly smart script. Betty's character receives a few too many monologues; try though Leamon might, she cannot quite evoke organic grace from these chunky soliloquies.
Towers selects repetition as the main vehicle for conveying Madeleine's questionable dementia. Though this tactic is effective, it is not particularly sophisticated, and Madeleine's one−liners end up losing their comedic punch by intermission.
Fortunately, Towers has a real talent for scripting conversation, and the sincere, emotive and comedic exchanges between characters easily compensate for the script's mild shortcomings. The lovers' spats between spirited Kitten and her more demure girlfriend, Ramona (Jessica Webb), are saucy and dazzling.
The play does not want for wit or insight, either. In one of its funniest lines, Betty rationalizes her clandestine relationship with her mother by equating lesbianism to attention deficit disorder and asthma, phenomena that simply didn't exist in her mother's day. The moment of comedy quickly turns poignant as she muses, "There was no name for [lesbians] back then. How real can you be without a name?"
Despite minor stumbles, there is a pinch of magic in "Five Down" that keeps it from ever going stale. The bizarre characters and their convincing portrait of emotion ensure that the final scenes of the performance sparkle as freshly as the first.
Though small imperfections create something of an uphill trek for the actors, they handle the challenge like seasoned mountain climbers. As they take their final bows, they beam at the audience, emanating all the accomplishment of hikers at the summit of Mount Everest.
