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The evening begins with Howard Barker's 1982 play Judith: A Parting from the Body, inspired by the Biblical story of the Israeli widow who took it upon herself to kill an Assyrian general and thereby save her people from destruction. The second play is Caryl Churchill's 1976 Vinegar Tom, a feminist take on the 17th century witchcraft trials in England. Of the two, Barker's is perhaps the more intriguing, if decidedly challenging work. Barker is not known for writing straightforward plot-driven plays, and his focus is often the pursuit of intellectual discourse while, at the same time, insisting that we gaze fixedly and unflinching at the corruption of the soul. Thus we have a Judith (Pamela J. Gray, giving a richly layered performance) who is torn between her murderous intent and her strong physical attraction to the man she is sworn to kill. Judith: A Parting from the Body takes place in General Holofernes's tent on the eve before the planned attack on Judith's town. The general, played by Alex Draper with a great sense of detached inevitability, has death on his mind —not necessarily his own, but merely as a random outcome of battle. This night, he is not particularly looking for female companionship, but he invites Judith and her servant (Patricia Buckley) to join him. Over the course of their time together, Judith grows increasingly caught up in the unexpected allure of this man of seemingly boundless power, and it takes some prodding by the servant to get her to carry through with her mission. Once the deed is done, it is as though the corrupting intoxication of domination that had suffused the general's being has now passed on to Judith, and she exits a much-changed woman. Barker is a favorite of the company (his full-length Scenes from an Execution is being presented in rotation with these two shorter plays). Director Richard Romagnoli is quite adroit at shaping the performances so that we can negotiate our way through Barker's often convoluted work. Romagnoli also does not balk at Barker's excesses, which are sometimes gaspably brilliant and sometimes merely gaspable.
Just as Arthur Miller used the witchcraft trials to serve as an allegory of America's anti-communist mania during the 1950s in The Crucible, Ms. Churchill uses Vinegar Tom to highlight the relative powerlessness of women, four of whom are hanged as witches during the course of this play. Alice (Tara Giordano) is targeted for being sexually promiscuous; her ill-tempered mother (Nesba Crenshaw) is accused of cursing her neighbors when their cows sicken; the midwife (Lucy Faust) is attacked for offering abortion services; and one of her clients (Chelsea Melone) is singled out for availing herself of said services. All of this comes off as rather heavy-handed, and while the play may have felt like a gut punch during the 1970s, it has little to say that is new. It is provocative only to provoke. Ms. Churchill's bent for satire is given voice largely outside of the play itself, through a series of songs that a trio of women perform as a sort of "Greek Chorus." (The playwright contributed the lyrics, and Carol Christensen the music.) The talented singers (Caitlin Rose Duffy, Joelle Mendoza, and Liana Barron) step out periodically to comment in close harmony on the plight of women, who —unless they quietly accept their narrowly defined place in society —are without recourse. Sample lyric: "If you float you're a witch/If you scream you're a witch/If you sink, then you're dead anyway." There are also lots of references to blood (menstrual and otherwise) and a liberal sprinkling of vulgar terms for women's body parts. In truth, both of these plays are lesser works by very talented and prolific playwrights. It is the dedicated work of the solid cast and directors (Cheryl Faraone does the honors for Vinegar Tom) that make them worth the visit by admirers of Barker and Churchill.
Judith: A Parting from the Body & Vinegar Tom
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