by Michele Markarian
‘bare stage’ by Michael Walker. Directed by A. Nora Long. Presented by Festival Theatre Company, in association with Paul Gregory and Alex Kenton at the Plaza Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
Years ago, there was a Boston casting director who mounted a production of a show that he asked actresses – not actors – to appear in certain scenes topless. The script didn’t call for it, and when a beautiful young friend of mine refused, she was taunted for not being “real” enough – or some strange foolishness – but allowed onstage anyway. Two of the other beautiful young women, including the lead, had already agreed to appear bare-breasted, so the director was able to get his rocks off while satisfying himself with the ability to make vulnerable young actresses do his bidding. Watching the scenes was uncomfortable, as the nudity was uncalled for. Across the river, a few years later, a Cambridge director did the same thing with the same result. Happily, for playwright Michael Walker, the nudity in bare stage is an integral part of the piece.
Mary Katherine Byrnes, or Kate (Ashley Risteen) is an actor and dancer trying to make it as a professional, as is her best friend, Rachel Goldstein (Allie-Meeks Carufel). Both audition for a hot young playwright, Parker Martin (Kevin Cirone), whose latest piece is rumored to be headed to Broadway. Parker is clearly smitten with Kate’s beauty – she has a dancer’s body and grace – and tells her that the chorus of the play, for which she’s being considered, will appear in the nude throughout. Kate agrees to this, despite the upset she is sure it will cause her father, Patrick Byrnes (the excellent Steve Auger). The overweight Rachel is not so lucky. Being non-Equity, she finds out about the nudity after she’s been cast, and is not happy about it. Thus begins a series of disputes between Kate and Rachel, Kate and Parker, and Cate and her boyfriend, Tim (a wonderfully obtuse Glen Moore).
It’s an interesting piece that captures the power dynamics between actor and director, actor and actor, and actor in a relationship with non-actor. With Parker, Kate is flirtatious and subservient – “Is that what you want? I’ll do anything,” she says to him as he’s directing her in a scene. After he opens her up to the feelings she’s never exposed after her mother’s death, Kate decides that she and Parker need to have a relationship. But her affect is oddly dispassionate; this seems more like an idea than a desire, and not in keeping with the passionate outbursts of emotion that I remember from my own years as an actor. The only time we see Risteen lose her cool is when she’s screaming at Tim to leave her house immediately, lending credence to the thought that her feelings for Parker are just academic. Parker, to his credit, does not cave, but only because he wants to remain in control by not giving in to his actor’s will.
And Rachel! “I have to change my clothes in the closet when I’m alone”, she tells Kate angrily. She doesn’t want to be naked, and luckily – or not – for her, Parker decides to fire the entire chorus, and leave Kate the solo nude performer in the show. Meeks-Carufel gives a funny, credible performance as the best friend who’s never going to be as pretty and as perfect as her buddy, and accepts it anyway. When the nude scene does arrive – and again, quite necessary to the plot – Risteen, an actress who’s very grounded in her body, delivers it with no apparent self-consciousness in order to prove a point. I can honestly say that it’s the first time I’ve witnessed a nude scene that hasn’t made me uncomfortable for the actor, and to that end, I was relieved. bare stage makes its case, and in a tasteful and thoughtful way. For more information, go to: https://www.bostontheatrescene.com/season/bare-stage/
