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The title of the play references that historic day of July 20, 1969, when the crew of the Apollo 11 landed on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong famously announced to the world—in the days before gender-neutral language took hold—"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." A small group has gathered at the home of Don and Carol (Ian Patrick Poake and Kate Garfield) to watch the events unfold on the TV screen. Joining the couple are their friends Wendell and June (Brian Edelman and Breanna Foister), Carol's dementia-lost father Joe (Kevin Gilmartin), and a newcomer to the scene, Holly (Lisa Anderson), whom Carol has hired to help with her soon-to-be-born child. For most of Act I, the interactions among the men and women resemble sitcom bickering (the men are self-important windbags; the women roll their eyes and put their husbands in their place), but a darker tone begins to take hold at the end of the act. Carol goes into labor, and she, Don, and June rush off to the hospital. Holly and Wendell are left alone, with only Joe as an uncomprehending witness to a scene of absurdist cruelty that plays out as Wendell begins to intimidate and humiliate the babysitter. Holly, who at 23 is not versed in the knowing ways the other women have of handling their men, is shocked into going along. Act II takes place a few months later. It is December 31, on the cusp of the new decade in which the modern Women's Rights Movement would reach its fullest height in the public eye. Unfortunately, here's where the unevenness of the play comes in. The outlandish and outrageous tone that emerged before the intermission leads to little more than reinforcement of the same themes. Puzzlingly, Holly has remained on the scene, having taken on the babysitting job (though she does ignore the offstage crying while smoking, drinking, and passing out on the sofa). The two couples come in after a night on the town, continue their sniping, and, in the end, raise a toast to the New Year while Holly sits alone, staring out as blank-eyed as Joe. It is a telling final image, and the playwright, who also serves as director, has captured a sense of the emerging struggle for equality between the sexes. But the play fails to carry out its ideas to a satisfactory conclusion, and the cast is forced to behave as caricatures, watering down a potentially powerful message.
Live From The Surface Of The Moon
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