The Other Place

Play (2011)
by Sharr White

With Debra Wise (Juliana), Angie Jepson (Dr. Cindy Teller/Laurel/a Woman), David DBeck (Ian), Jaime Carrillo (Richard/Bobby/a Man)

Juliana is a a neurologist who presents results of her research at a conference in the Caribbean. While noting the details of her work, subtle changes begin to occur. Familial issues surface and what seems like the temper of an authoritative personality begins to take on other, more fragile, dimensions.

Because this play relies on a big gotcha, it would not be fair to reveal much about its plot or strategy to those who have not seen it.

Suffice it to say that there are a couple of major themes upon which these surprises rely and it is not entirely clear that the play benefits from having them interlace in the way that they do. When one surprise is revealed it seems enough. When the second one comes into play, it seems to complicate the plot and diminish the power of the narrative.

Debra Wise is a wonderful actress whose many talents have lit up the stage at the Central Square Theater in recent years. Notably, last fall, she gave a stirring performance in The How And The Why by Sarah Treem, another fictional work devoted to the character of an accomplished middle-aged woman scientist.

The How And The Why had a kind of simplicity which did it great service. The straightforward elegance of the conflict between the two main characters in that play enabled Wise (and her co-star, Samantha Richert) to weave delicate and elaborate strands of relationship and emotional nuance.

The Other Place has a more complicated narrative that dissects its potential potencies in ways that make for a less enduring effect. Wise and her co-stars, principally David DeBeck (Ian) who plays her husband, make heroic efforts to cohere the complex interlaced lines of narrative, but are up against too many divergences in the writing to be able to carry it across the dramatic gaps.

The play makes some impact, indeed, in its principal revelation, and when one gets that, the play does good service. But, it works so hard to concoct all sorts of complicated eddies around the principal theme that it ultimately feels contrived.

That said, the Central Square Theater should be highly commended for making a commitment to producing plays on this general theme about accomplished women in science.

In addition to this and The How and The Why, the excellently written and produced Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler (performed the season before last) about the actual scientist who helped identify the structure of DNA, Rosalind Franklin, contributed significantly to this general theme. The impulse to continue that line of dramatic inquiry is entirely worthy, despite some of the narrative shortcomings in this play.

-BADMan