Loeb Psychodrama Blurs Reality and Performance

Divided in two by transparent curtains, the Loeb Experimental Theater’s stage conveys the terrifying schizophrenia of Tennessee Williams’ most twisted play-within-a-play.

The Two-Character Play operates on both literal and surreal levels—depicting two struggling siblings on a tour of a play and their extreme attempt to stave off madness and desperation.

Director David L. Skeist ’02-’03 says the “phenomenal” set design by Joy B. Fairfield ’03 is crucial to the play. Fairfield created a thrust stage—an unconventional design that places the audience on three sides of the playing space.

The set intends to suggest that fantasy and reality are indistinguishable. The offstage space is visible to the audience as a rambling assemblage of abandoned props.

A gilded gold frame looms high above the stage, hanging from invisible fish line. A pile of oriental rugs, an aging piano and a giant chicken wire sculpture reflect the clutter of the characters’ minds.

Opposite the frame on the split stage is the living room of a gothic Southern estate scattered with newspaper and Victorian furniture. This serves as the “fictitious” stage, although it more closely resembles reality than the “off-stage space” within the play.

Todd C. Bartels ’06 and Lisa Faiman ’03 portray Felice and Clare, actors who have been abandoned by the rest of an acting troupe but choose to continue performing, making up for the missing parts themselves.

As the play progresses, Felice and Clare become more unsure of the distinction between fantasy and reality.

The characters in the play-within-the-play are siblings who have rarely left their own house since witnessing their parents’ murder-suicide. In denial for decades, they have confined themselves to a dilapidated estate in New Bethesda, Md. where “the sunflowers have overgrown the exterior.”

The siblings’ stories are clear. But whether the actions on stage are those of Felice and Clare or of the parts they play is left ambiguous.

For the audience, watching The Two-Character Play constantly challenges the notion of reality and illusion. At one point, Felice draws a gun with the intention to commit suicide. It is up to the audience to determine whether this crucial moment is real or acted.

—The Two-Character Play runs until Saturday in the Loeb Ex.

—Staff writer Anais A. Borja can be reached at aborja@fas.harvard.edu.