Two-Headed Hibernates, Stirs and Goes Back To Sleep
One act play at Berkshire Theatre Festival
By: Nikolai Rudd - Aug 24, 2007
The Berkshire Theater Festival's "Two-Headed", by Julie Jensen, lies in hibernation most of the time until stirs to come to life in the middle, but nestles back to sleep with a lackluster finale. This five scene one-act play follows the lives of two Mormon women during the 1800's at age 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50. The play begins just after the Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857 in Utah, where Mormon men shot 127 immigrant men, women, and children from Missouri as their train passed through the state. Directed by Marc Geller and starring Corinna May and Diane Prusha, "Two-Headed", though well acted does little to get out of its wordy dialogue and lifeless personification of these two women, Lavinia and Hettie, as they wrestle with their roles and faith amid the Mormons' polygamist beliefs.
In the third scene tension arises and the actors tell more in gestures, staging, and silence than in all the dialogue that was rapidly spoken earlier. However, after scenes three and four, the play concludes with an ending that mirrored the beginning of the play. Aaron P. Mastin's mono-toned and mono-schematic sets and Dennis Ballard's costumes did little to energize the play which headily discussed killing, death, and faith. The staging was wooden, matching the big tree on stage that served as the main prop of a drama short on emotion and depth.
While the actreesses do have their moments in some scenes and gave good performances, where the drama was heightened, they were given very little to work with and much less to play with in terms of staging and setting. . The genesis of the play and its concept were interesting. Unfortunately it fell short of delivery of its promise. This play ran from July 25th-August 18th in the Unicorn Theater. You can go to their website at http://www.berkshiretheatre.org/ to see the rest of their season's schedule or call their box office at 413-298-5576.