THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO
The play focuses on the causes and ramifications of a failed marriage. It is narrated by the one child of that marriage (later children were stillborn), Matt–or Skippy, as everyone calls him. Between scenes he attempts an intellectual analysis of the events onstage. But gradually he’s drawn into the scenes himself, like Tom in The Glass Menagerie, and his analyses become more emotional. Ultimately, re-creating the events of his life and his parents’ lives acts as therapy for him, and in a true psychological breakthrough he can finally let go of some of his anger and genuinely mourn for his family.
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Particularly good are Denise Randol as Boo’s mother, Soot, and Janet Van Wess as the sourpuss Joan, one of Bette’s sisters. Randol has developed a wonderfully annoying dopey laugh for whenever Soot is uncomfortable. She also delves a little deeper than most of the cast into her character, communicating the frustration of a woman who’s used her “dumb blond” persona to hide what’s going on inside. Van Wess as Joan delivers her short, snide one-liners with a perfect deadpan. And though her character doesn’t call for the same revelatory intricacies as Randol’s, Van Wess is the picture of a desperately unhappy woman who refuses to hide her unhappiness in a family that insists she must.
