by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Five New Yorkers are stuck in the proverbial mud at a local Bronx dive in the '80s.
The play "Savage in Limbo" takes place one night in which some local slackers, all 32 years old, question what they've done with their lives and how they might make something of themselves.
"It's an important age," director Blake Magnusson said. "It's either an early midlife crisis or a late coming, like, 'Whoa, there's more to life.'"
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Although it's a five-person ensemble with a story to each character, Denise Savage is the central character, as the others manage to establish some life changes while she remains stuck.
"She's in a place where she's not sure what the next step in her life will be," said Andie Rigler, who plays Denise. "She's a 32-year-old virgin. She's very unaware of what her body does and what it is she wants. She's got a very masculine stance and wears clothes that hide her womanliness."
Joseph West, who plays Tony Aronica, said the play doesn't center on anyone in particular, though it does begin and end with Denise.
"I guess she's the main character in the sense that she doesn't change at all," West said. "The characters at least try to get out of the rut they're in. It's tragicomic. The tragic moments aren't Shakespearean, but more like a Bukowski novel. It's dark, but there's that humor."
Tony, a whirlwind of energy, bursts into the bar one-third of the way through the play and announces he met a girl who told him about the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union stands for what's happening in the world at that time, but the characters are a little out of touch, and they don't know anything about it.
"He feels like he's got to leave his girlfriend, Linda, who's been talking to Denise about how they got in a fight," Magnusson said. "He wants to see ugly girls. He's a player, and he's been that way since he was about 12. Now he wants to change himself, so he thinks by going for another kind of woman, it's going to make him a better person. For him, he calls it ugly girls. Supposedly, smarter girls aren't as pretty."
"Savage in Limbo" was written by playwright John Patrick Shanley.
Shanley also wrote "Moonstruck" and won a Pulitzer, a Tony and an Oscar for his writing,
Rigler said Shanley writes great parts for women.
"I don't think there's a playwright out there who is writing such great women's roles," she said. "They're written like real women. They have color and nuance; they're not stereotypes. I don't think authors, male or female, have that much insight into how women think. He writes three-dimensional people, the men included."
Rigler said the play will cause audience members to examine their lives.
"The play is about the differences between how people perceive action," she said. "Denise always wants something big to come along, whereas all the other characters realize our daily lives and what we do to get by may be the more important thing. It's about being certain ages in our life, and the bridge between being a grown-up in age and being a grown-up in action."
Magnusson said the characters could be seen as archetypes.
"They're five very distinct personalities," she said. "They're sort of combing through the reasons people do these things, and why they change or don't change. The moral is, it's so easy to talk the talk. But to take a step, so rarely do we prove ourselves right or put into action what we understand or what is plain to see."
"Savage in Limbo"
Sol Arts
712 Central Ave. S.E.
Through April 15
Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.
Sunday, 2 p.m.
$8 students and seniors
$10 general
Pay what you can on
April 5, 8 p.m.
