WOMEN AND WATER
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Women and Water is antigovernment and antiwar, but it’s essentially a search for truth. It begins with the young and idealistic Lydie working as a nurse during a Civil War battle. She has run away from her home in Nantucket because she began to believe she had been drawn into a lie by her adored father and brother after they returned from a whaling trip, and she was unable to confront them. During the battle Lydie meets a young man who persuades her to try to find supplies the soldiers need, and then sets off on a long journey that crisscrosses the country. Along the way she meets four men (one of whom is the young man who persuaded her to go) who become her companions, and eventually they all end up heading toward her home in Nantucket. There she, with the help of her new friends, intends to discover the truth about her father and brother, each of whom tells a completely different story. In the process, she is forced to give up her youthful notion that the world is black and white, and learns that some things can never be known. As she makes the transition from girlhood to womanhood, she becomes aware that she finally has some wisdom to impart to a new generation.
Director David Cromer and his talented crew of actors and designers have put together an intensely committed production of this play. Tom Bell is responsible for the astonishing sound design, which almost becomes another character as it subtly informs and adds textures to nearly every scene. Set designer Jane Galt uses natural materials, mostly wood and rope, to create a rough and simple environment; her platforms open up and pull out to quickly and easily create myriad settings. Lighting designer J.R. Lederle expands Galt’s work by creating new moods for each place and by focusing on small areas within the already small space (though he could do some work on the camp-fire effect). Jennifer Bartels’s costumes are simple and fitting, though it would be nice to see the wear and tear of the journey mirrored in the clothing.
It is on this level tha the production falls short. Cromer’s Women and Water focuses on the earthbound story line rather than on what the characters and events symbolize. He has chosen which of the four estates are most important. Rather than allowing all the forces to battle around Lydie and then letting her decide what is right, he gives her the “correct” choices, which she must simply allow herself to see. The balance has been tipped in other ways. Cabell is almost pure Cain, the father almost pure good. Lydie’s peasant, Amos Mason, is only a gentle fool; the religious aspects of her priest, Moncure Nelson, are almost completely passed over. Some of the darker aspects of the play are barely acknowledged: the strong suggestion of incest, the role of racism, the sexual tension between the companions, and the brutal side of Lydie’s father (along with the possibility that he has a rich fantasy life). It is a major tribute to Cromer and his cast that these profound failings seem small.
