Albee's "Three Tall Women" takes place in a hushed, shrine-like woman's bedroom in a wealthy household. The presiding deity of this room is an unpleasant elderly woman known to us only as A; she is imperious and demanding even as her dementia-afflicted mind and deteriorating body pull her down to the inevitable. Albee wrote his one99one Pulitzer winning play as a sort of catharsis after the death of the distant adoptive mother who never came to terms with his homosexuality; like A's son in the play, he left home at an early age to escape a strife-filled home life.
In Act one, A (Megan Cole) lords it over her tolerant middle-aged caregiver B (Suzanne Bouchard), while the unpleasant and unimaginative 20-something lawyer C (Alexandra Tavares) finds offense in A's unconscious expressions of racism and classism. A's senile meanderings and the reactions of the other two generate some chuckles, but the slice of life depicted is all too depressingly real to be entertaining, especially for those who must deal with aging relatives in similar circumstances. Unfortunately, Cole's frequent calling for lines on opening night and the booming prompts on the God mike in response further pulled the audience out of the comfortable cocoon of theater. To give Cole credit, she was spot on in Act two, and the all-too realistic dialogue of dementia with its circular repetitiveness and lack of connection with the other actors must be an actor's nightmare. And in spite of her issues with the dialogue, Cole still managed to convey A's potent mix of sophistication and narrow-mindedness.
It is well worth sticking around after intermission for Act two, which is the heart of this play. Act one ends with A having a stroke. In Act two, her comatose figure still presides over the bedroom where a senior but still vital A, her middle-aged persona B and her idealistic young self C reveal their shared history from the very different perspectives of their relative ages. All three actors excel here, and Nick Garrison manages to speak volumes in a non-speaking part as A's estranged son visiting at her deathbed. We learn the history of A's marriage that began in idealism and continued through multiple infidelities, illness, loss of status and means, as well as how our perceptions change at the different stages of our life. Albee has mined the depths here and much rings with psychological truth, but it is particularly a credit to this talented playwright that we (and hopefully he) leave the theater with a feeling of optimism, that every life has value.
"Three Tall Women" plays through Nov. 28 at Seattle Repertory Theatre. For tickets and times visit www.seattlerep.org.[[In-content Ad]]
