2-11-JR-MaidPray

The Maiden's Prayer comes from the prolific pen of Nicky Silver, so going in you know the material is meritorious. OK, it's not quite the same as Pterodactyls, Silver's award winner, but the exploratory theme of feelings, rejection, dejection and love are all there wrapped neatly in a story that tangles four people in a love rhombus.
It's a rough story that begins with a wedding between Cynthia and Taylor, then moves to a back room where we meet Libby, Cynthia's sister and Paul, a long time friend of Taylor. Playwright Silver wastes no time letting us know who these people are; Libby hates her sister since childhood, and now that she has married Taylor, she hates her more because Libby was also in love with him. Cynthia exhibits a self-satisfied smugness that is underscored by a subtle manipulative air, and Paul is a gay man who has also loved Taylor since the age of six, but is now drifting from one affair to another, usually from night to night.	Ben Hensley Lauren Hattaway - Isaac Nippert
Libby is a neurotic trying to maintain sobriety but fighting it all the way since her temper flares with the slightest provocation. Events happen quickly - Libby loses her job, Cynthia loses her baby at birth and Paul keeps turning over lovers until a hanger-on drifter talks him into letting him stay with him. At this point Cynthia and Taylor are experiencing serious problems until things get so bad they separate. Meantime, without a job Libby also moves in with Paul and falls into a situation where she eventually becomes a call girl to support herself, giving Cynthia some real ammunition to use against her. First presented in 1998, Silver's play shows people who are not good at coping with life and often misdiagnose their own problems. There is a great deal of anger shown, and director Tim Lanfield has his actors do a lot of yelling - more than is needed at times. The Raven's small area has a cramped feel which is not helped by a large bed on the left and a small table on the right of the stage. The actors do not seem comfortable manipulating themselves in the small area. Maybe this is good, since the characters they play are not capable of expanding their lives beyond their small world and the metaphor emphasizes confinement.
In spite of it the actors are quite good - special mention goes to Courtney DeCosky, who as Libby, allows the character to transition through several stages of psychological stress and emotion. Isaac Nippert shows Taylor going from an over solicitous husband to a broken down drunk contemplating suicide and Ben Hensley is also excellent in his comedic multiple roles as Paul's paramours. His portrait of Andrew paints a man who is opportunistic in finding free living arrangements, evaluating their suitability by the bathroom size and the level of cable service in the apartment more than any personal feelings.	Isaac Nippert Courtney DeCosky-Lauren Hattaway-Colbert Alembert
At first Lauren Hattaway gives Cynthia a warm personality but that changes drastically after the death of the baby, where she becomes selfish and insensitive while Colbert Alembert's portrayal of Paul is harder to pin down. We're never sure if he's meant to be comical, tragic, serious or just annoying, but he does the annoying part quite well. A question came to mind about some details of the story. We are told that Cynthia's baby died because the cord was wound around the neck and suffocated the baby before birth. In today's medical world with ultrasound and all other means of monitoring prior to birth, where doctors have been known to operate on pre-natal children, there is a much smaller chance of that happening. When this play was written such deaths were probably more common, and perhaps an update might be in order to increase believability. In the end the characters do not seem to be much better off than in the beginning. The solutions they reach are at best fragile and at worst flimsy and you leave the theatre hoping that you will not meet anyone like them. When one's problems are measured against what Silver has his characters go through there is a sigh of relief that this is just a play and that your life could not ever be as screwed up as these people. Could it? Comments? Write to us at: Letters@ReviewPlays.Com Runs through Sunday February 27, 2011: Reservations @ 1-800-681-5150 Source http://www.marchofdimes.com/complications_umbilical.html