by Nicholas Whittaker
‘Extremities’ – Written by William Mastrosimone; Directed by Alexandra Smith; Produced by Kelly Smith. Stage Manager: Karlie Fitzgerald. Fight Choreographer: Jessica Scout Malone. Props Designer: Erin McCarthy. Costume Designer: Heather Oshinsky. Lighting Consultation: Hunker McKee, Ben Moll. Fireplace Construction: Ben Lieberson. Presented by Also Known As Theater at Margaret Jewett Hall in First Church, 11 Garden St. Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 through April 13
“Cinematic” is a suspect way to describe a stage play, seemingly forgetting the clear distinctions between the two mediums. And yet, Also Known As Theater’s production of Extremities is nothing short of cinematic, in the best possible way. Extremities manages to rethink the possibility of live theater, capturing the crackling energy and painful brutality seemingly possible only on the screen while remaining true to the fundamentals of stage performance. That such an exercise is backed by a wildly clever (if slightly politically outdated) script, a willingness to dig deep into the complexities of sexual assault, female trauma, and masculine violence – bolstered by an extraordinary cast – makes Extremities required viewing.
To speak too much on the plot is to risk ruining what makes Extremities such a thrilling experience. The play, written by William Mastrosimone and first produced in 1982, details the story of a woman, Marjorie, who survives a sexual assault and seeks revenge on her assailant. Taking place in a single day, in a single room, Extremities unflinchingly dives into the violence Marjorie both suffers and inflicts, forcing the audience to witness every scream, every roiling spasm, every slap and punch and kick and choke. This is both Extremities’ greatest triumph and most worrying feature. The play’s decision to rawly present sexual violence is clearly motivated by a genuine desire to unpack and deconstruct its causes and effects. Marjorie is granted the full width of her trauma and rage, forcing the audience face-to-face with the reality of patriarchal violence.
But the viscerality of Extremities pushes us to ask if the presentation of that violence is the same thing as critiquing it. This question becomes particularly prescient by the play’s end, in which Marjorie makes a final decision to take on destructive dominance as a response to her own domination. While one may worry that such a decision on the part of the playwright comes too close to demonizing Marjorie and survivors of sexual assault, it is presented with enough ambiguity and nuance to offer up earnest questions, rather than answers.
And Extremities makes full use of this ambiguity as an opportunity for first-class theater. Rather than on a traditional stage, AKAT stages the play on the floor of the ornate Margaret Jewett Hall of First Church, in a black-box style setting. The audience is fully immersed into the drama, the chairs surrounding the staging space so that every angle can be seen. Backed on one side by a stellar set and cornered in by the audience in all others, the cast, and the action, has no place to hide. Mastrosimone’s script abstains, from the most part, from the drawn-out monologues and knotty rapport that generally defines traditional stage performance. Instead, whole swathes of the production are almost completely silent, the only sound labored breathing and snarls as we watch Marjorie and her assaulter grapple with each other. The result is a kind of gritty naturalism, more like a taut thriller film than a Shakespearean production. Alexandra Smith’s direction soars with a canny understanding of staging and pacing, eking every moment of emotional and narrative drama out of her set-pieces. The fight and action choreography, by Jessica Scout Malone, is particularly stunning, taking full advantage of the production’s surroundings to paint troublingly, and artfully, vivid images that pull the audience in.
In this, Extremities captures a real kind of cinematic urgency that nonetheless builds on the possibilities of live performance. Because unlike a film (there is a 1986 film adaptation), AKAT’s production is able to create heart-pounding dramatic, narrative, and technical tension live, forcing the audience to feel complicit in the torturous happenings it bears witness to. Without the distance allowed by film, the emotions of the actors and audience become real, and are stronger for it.
As innovative as Smith’s direction and staging is, all would go to shambles without a talented cast. Luckily, talent is in ample supply with these four actors. Alissa Cordeiro handles Marjorie’s transformation with admirable control, perfectly manipulating her physicality, words, and emotions to the brink of over-acting, but never beyond the line. The result is a performance buzzing with freneticism, imagining trauma as a chaotic, dangerous force. Padraig Sullivan as Joe, Marjorie’s assaulter, crafts a melodramatic performance capable of standing toe-to-toe with Cordeiro’s own. In his hands, Joe becomes a twisted, devious, funny, and human man, making his crime all the more powerfully felt. Srin Chakravorty and Amanda Dane as Marjorie’s two roommates are similarly adept. Chakravorty’s portrayal of the religious, hysterical Terry hums nervously, and Dane’s intellectual and level-headed Patricia provides an essential grounding presence for the cast. Watching these four actors at the top of their game is a treat; watching them work together with incredible fluidity and cohesion, even more so.
This production is hard; hard to watch, and doubtlessly hard to work through. AKAT deserves high praise for their willingness to lean into this difficulty, to take it on as a challenge both for themselves and their audience. They prove themselves more than up for the task. Sacrificing neither political power nor aesthetic prowess, Extremities is a tightly-constructed and astonishing piece of theater, its incisive social critique matched only by its rare craft. It is not to be missed. Content Advisory: Discussions of gender-based violence and sexual assault. For tickets and information, go to: www.bit.ly/akaextremities
