TRIPLE PLAY
Metraform
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Nevin’s Fishing for Men is a comic allegory that compares the various strategies women employ to attract men (perfume, lingerie, pretending to like sports) with the art of fishing. Catherine (Ann Marie Ready) teaches her younger sister Jennifer (Meaghan McCarville) the art of catching a man by baiting her hook with such lures as skimpy negligees and copies of Sports Illustrated doused in perfume. Along the way Jennifer learns which men she should throw back (the poor ones), which ones she should try to land (the rich ones), and which ones to avoid altogether (smarmy womanizers).
Such a plot summary hardly does justice to the artful way Nevin allows his story to unfold or to Nevin’s gift for establishing a character with just a line or two of dialogue. But it does point to the most troubling aspect of Nevin’s work: it’s impossible to tell what he thinks of his characters and their situation. Is Fishing for Men intended as satire of the status quo? Or merely as funny description of mating rituals we may be ambivalent about but would never dare rebel against or try to change? As it is, this play can be taken either way.
Nevin and Pinter also disagree on a deeper level. Nevin’s comedy works from the assumption that things are pretty much what they seem, and those things that aren’t can be explained before the end of the play: Pinter’s work is built on the premise that if you think you know what’s going on, you’re wrong. Which means that when Pinter and Nevin are put side by side, either Pinter will make Nevin seem superficial, or Nevin will make Pinter seem humorless. Because Nevin is first on the bill, his more optimistic point of view dominates; The Collection comes off not as a mysterious bit of Pinteresque tragicomedy, but as a failed comedy–despite some wonderful acting from Robert Bundy (as the husband who discovers his wife has cheated on him) and Daniel Blinkoff (as the man who did the cheating).
