A blunt, non-sugar coated tale of an average family, “Face Divided,” directed by Karen Giordano and written by Edward Allan Baker, shows the raw emotion and complicated layers of the simple person’s life. The play takes you on a roller coaster of emotion that is ultimately unsatisfactory.
The play starts with a distraught woman sitting in a medical office, clutching a small stereo. We learn the woman’s name is Debbie Irons, [Rosebud Baker], who appears to be in her mid to early twenties. She wears a simple dress and sneakers and it is clear that she is not wealthy. A nurse comes in by the name of Sue Wilcox, [Joanna Rhinehart] and is irritated by Debbie who screams and causes a disturbance. She tries to get her to calm, but it is clear that she would rather knock her out.
Debbie’s anger seems to be uncontrollable when the nurse says that she will not be allowed to see her daughter. Freddie, Debbie’s husband [George Katt], arrives and all hell breaks loose. Debbie is enraged and throws herself at him, trying to attack him. The nurse had to double as a bodyguard at that moment and pull her off him. When the nurse leaves Debbie yells at him some more because she is angry that he was with his band when she needed him the most. Freddie tries to calm her down and asks her what happened. She tells him the same story that she told the nurse. Freddie questions her several more times, but she has other things on her mind. She asks him questions about where he was and then asks him if he is high. He tells her he isn’t and she asks if the blunt is still in the ash trey. This angers Freddie because she should be concerned about her daughter, not weather or not she can get high. They argue until Freddie takes her in his arms and tries to calm her. This seems like an intimate moment until his grip tightens and he asks her why she hurt their daughter.
Baker’s portrayal of an emotional woman was at times so believable that the audience is taken into a world that makes them feel for her and wish to protect her from the evils of the world. Katt was slightly more realistic with his character, a man who was too young to have a wife and child but was trying, if at times unsuccessfully, to do the right thing.
Overall, the play had potential. The concept was creative. Ultimately, however, it fails. Major problems derailed its ability to captivate. The acting was not great. Neither was the stage. It was small and the props looked unrealistic. Again, it could have been amazing, it just wasn’t.
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