Somewhere in the suburbs of New Jersey, the lives are about to be upended of two married couples who are also long-term best friends in ways none of them could have ever predicted – all because of a woman named Pip who hunts to kill all the meat she eats and who happens also to live with and love two men. Somehow as they sip their Malbec, the topic comes up in the conversation of a young, beautiful woman who tends to arrive as a temp late at work quite tired; and soon the conversation dives into which kind of meat pursuing and devouring is the source of her next-day exhaustion – a deer’s or her two live-in lovers. These otherwise middle-aged, fairly everyday types soon find themselves titillated wondering about the lives and loves of a polyamorous household, all leading to a decision that they must invite the threesome to spend the upcoming New Year’s Eve with them as a foursome (but not a ‘foursome’ in the same way the others are a ‘threesome’ … at least not yet).
Custom Made Theatre Company assembles a crackerjack cast under the push-the-boundaries-wide-open direction of Adam L. Sussman to produce the oft-hilarious, sometimes-puzzling, and overall entertaining Bay Area premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s 2017 play, How to Transcend a Happy Marriage. One of America’s currently most popular and produced playwrights, Sarah Ruhl is known to be bold in subject matter, not bound by reality, and always ready liberally to inject both mysteries and surprises into her plays. Certainly, all those qualities abound to the hilt in her How to Transcend a Happy Marriage. The one thing missing in the end, however, is at least one clear message or take-away that the playwright intends amidst all the funny, bizarre, and fantastical elements and situations the playwright introduces.
New Year’s Eve comes and in fact Pip and her two live-in guys arrive to the somewhat nervous but clearly curious waiting group of four, married friends. Initial chitchat dances around the professions of each. Paul (Matt Weimer) is an architect who no longer redesigns bathrooms but writes books about architecture. His wife, George (Karen Offereins) – short for Georgia and who often breaks the fourth wall to give us commentary, warnings, and philosophy – is a junior-high Latin teacher who would rather be a PhD and scholar but must now support her husband/author. Michael (Malcolm Rodgers), married to Jane (Hilary Hesse), is a former rock band member who gave up touring to help with their kids and who now writes jingles (which no one of the millennial visitors seems to have heard).
Michael is currently reading The Ethical Slut, which he mentions in a silly voice implying tangently it must be somehow relevant to tonight’s gathering. He is also a huge fan of Pythagoras and his theories, which immediately begins some eye contact and excited exchanges between him and visiting David (Nick Trengove), who explains in rather esoteric, superior-sounding tones how he spends his life studying triangles and anything to do with threes (and probably threesomes?). The other half of the male part of the visiting threesome, Freddie (Louel Senores) says in his rather monotone manner, “I try not to do anything,” spending his time mostly collecting garbage and making things from it. (Freddie has also brought some hashish brownies which the hosting two couples are one-by-one beginning to either nibble gingerly (e.g., Jane) or eat with gusto in one big bite (e.g., Paul)).
Even as this back-and-forth get-to-know is proceeding, movement among the seven begins to take on hinting aspects. David edges closer to George with some telling signs of brushing against her and with eyes that seem to imply, “Interested?” Paul makes pointed remarks with cocked head and smacking lip accompaniments aimed at Pip, who returns them in kind before then turning attention to Jane, who clearly seems flattered if not also flustered. But when the loosely sashaying, free-flowing in spirit, and what looks to be intentionally provocative Pip (Fenner) suggests karaoke, a kid’s toy machine quickly becomes in her hands an adult plaything with an ending that her now-high and giggling audience could clearly not resist. Pip’s increasingly erotic sung notes and hip-and-hand evocative choreography to “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” soon lead to a double meaning for the word “come” as Pip introduces each new verse with more oomph and thrust (“She’ll be coming on six white horses … Hallelujah, she’ll be coming around the mountain”).
And if that were not enough to get everyone’s juices flowing (so to speak), imagine what happens when Pip suggests Jane become her “pole” so she can illustrate her latest means of exercising, pole dancing. A few times of a leg wrapped around the so-called pole or of her dancer’s body lowering itself down the quite erect but now aroused Jane soon leads to a whole lot of others starting to reach out and experiment with each other. A sudden kiss of visiting David to hosting Jane stops everyone for a few, frozen seconds of silence; but that one smacker opens up Pandora’s Box. Only when Jane and Michael’s teenage daughter suddenly walks in to find Mom holding in her hand something that belongs to David’s body that clearly she should not be holding does sixteen-year-old Jenna’s (Celeste Kamiya) “What the …?” bring a room full of grinding, pumping, and sweating to a shocked standstill.
If Sarah Ruhl had stopped right there, How to Transcend a Happy Marriage could have been a ridiculously funny and high-energy one-act play and near farce. In fact, the intermission break was a titter in everyone’s laughter and recounting of this line or that line from that first act, with more laughter to follow each remembrance. However, in the second half – as this playwright in wont to do – things go a bit weird; and it is not all just because of mushroom-infused tea (although for sure that is surely an important ingredient). A family dog is shot by an errant arrow; a cellmate suddenly disappears in a local jail; and George worries that the duck they tried to slaughter but could not for New Year’s Eve to appease Pip’s need to eat only meat that is hand-killed – maybe that duck’s uneasy spirit is what is causing her life and those of her husband’s and two friends now to be so miserable.
All to say, things in Sarah Ruhl’s script do go awry in a multitude of still funny but not always comprehensible ways. Entering the scene are introduced themes of different generations and their non-overlapping views of sexual mores and practices and of parents and children unease of accepting each other as sexual beings. There are also themes of hallucinogens and their possible abilities to open us up to new experiences that may or may not be for our own good. And then there is a missing person, a feather, and a bird laying three eggs that is anybody’s guess what message is really being sent – if any.
But given the overall prowess of this director and this ensemble, we in the audience still have an overall great time, even if the second half of the two-hour (plus intermission) show does seem longer and much more convoluted that the quickly passing, fully engaging first half. Through it all, each cast member brings special traits and nuances to leave memorable impressions of the characters we meet. Karen Offereins and Fenner as George and Pip, respectively, are particularly impressive.
Adam L. Sussman’s direction and the cast’s performances are greatly enhanced by the character-defining costumes of Kathleen Qiu, lighting mixtures of Weili Shi, and the simple but effective scenic design of Quinnton Barringer. Moy Ahlers contributes properties that populate the dinner party as well as various moments of the strange and the fantastical while Everett Elton Bradman’s sound design provides well-timed cues and a set of kid’s karaoke tunes that turn bawdy in spite of the designer’s well-played, kid-oriented score.
“Music, food, and love” is one attempt of our sometimes narrator, George, to summarize the themes of the evening, with her further employing additive sounds of one, then two, next three, and finally three hundred kids playing violin to make some point or another about more being better than one or two. If there are some problematic aspects to Sarah Ruhl’s sidetracks and surprises in How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, we as an audience mostly do not care. In the end, we get to be laugh during this evening at Custom Made, even if sometimes we are not sure exactly what just happened.
Rating: 4 E
How to Transcend a Happy Marriage continues February 9, 2020 at Custom Made Theatre Company, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco. Tickets are available online at www.custommade.org or by calling 415-789-2682 (CMTC).
Photo Credits: Jay Yamada
