The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife

Play (2000)
by Charles Busch

With Marina Re (Marjorie), Joel Colodner (Ira), Ellen Colton (Frieda), Caroline Lawton (Lee), Zaven Ovian (Mohammed)

Marjorie (Marina Re) is a neurotic pseudo-intellectual, wife of Ira, an allergist. Into their upscale lives drifts Lee, an old friend of Marjorie’s; bedlam ensues. It’s not bad bedlam, but provocative and unsettling, and gradually the parameters of Marjorie’s and Ira’s life get stretched to the breaking point. Mixtures of a personal sort open up Pandora’s boxes, which seem to have spring-loaded covers.

This very fun production of the celebrated and amusing play by Charles Busch is a little, but not overly, thought-provoking. Though a lot of books are mentioned in passing – pseudo-literariness seems to be the watchword of the day – no real ideas are generated. Actions are generated, mostly by Lee, who seems like a visitation of a female spirit – whether Elijah-like or Golem-like is not always clear. That ambiguity of moral intent generates the focus of interest in the play. Is she good, is she bad – will we ever know? What becomes of Marjorie and Ira as a result of Lee’s insinuation into their lives is at once dramatic and unexpectedly predictable.

Marina Re is a very broad Marjorie. Totally outlandish in her wild expression of neuroticism, she sometimes seems over-the-top, until it becomes clear that over-the-top is what the play is about. Her early histrionics are seen, in retrospect, as psychological forecasting for the rest of the play.

Joel Colodner (Ira), captures a perfect combination of bland professional, boring husband, and lurid adventurer, not a very easy combo to master. He has played so many sagacious characters on the stage of the Lyric that it’s a refreshment to see him do a boring-lurid take on an upscale doctor.

Marina Re, as the sylph, Lee, presents a kind of Anglican poise in the midst of a role that seems to emphasize the opposite, but it’s an interesting take. It doesn’t seem likely that she is the old Jewish school friend of Marjorie’s, but, in this kind of wild setting, anything goes.

The play breaks some expected boundaries, which makes it fun. There is a kind of Dorothy in Oz quality to some of the plot, with Lee as a kind of witch, neither clearly good nor clearly bad, but determined to shake up the sheets on the somewhat too comfortable bed that Marjorie and Ira have made for themselves. This Lyric production does justice to the spoofy oddness of the play’s structure. Emphasizing the extremes and stretching the performances, it causes one to come to the edge of laughter frequently. Its underlying tone is ironic rather than hilarious, so one frequently hangs on that edge but still enjoys the view from it. The dramatic cityscape shown through the back of Matt Whiton’s attractive set helps to ensure that feeling.

– BADMan