Something broken: Bishop Arts’ Before you get married

It’s the night before Alicia’s wedding and her fiance keeps calling Jason (her brother) trying to track her down. Alicia’s visiting Jason’s hotel room (hers is on the same floor) to get some quality time before the big event. Jason (Mathieu Myrick) and Alicia (Stepanie Oustalet) are close, and she confides that she’s having second thoughts about her bridegroom. Jason keeps his sense of humor. Perhaps his younger sister is suffering from 11th hour jitters. Alicia presents him with a taped message from their mother. Their mom committed suicide, so it’s understandable that he’d rather wait for such an ominous portent.

In this frantic, chaotic life of ours, there are many kinds of intimacy. Wife to husband, parent to child, brother to brother, aunt to niece, buddy to buddy, cousin to cousin. They are all different, but one’s no better than another. Siblings share a special bond. They can be frank in ways others can’t, because they will always be connected. Come what may. Alicia and Jason have suffered numerous ordeals: missing father, mother they lost too soon, pieces of their history that are sketchy. They’ve carried one another through difficult times, and seem to be reasonably intact. The two start raiding the stock of matrimonial wine and getting up to mischief. They play truth or dare. A customary trope of the theatre is to provide the characters with alcohol, making it easier to face painful secrets. In this case, the fact they’re in love with one another.

The subject of incest has been the subject of numerous plays. Tis pity she’s a whore, House of yes, Mourning becomes Electra, Fool for love. Franky Gonzalez’s Before you get married bears some resemblance to Sam Shepard’s enigmatic drama. Like May and Eddie, Alicia and Jayson don’t have the whole story. There are details they haven’t got. In both, the sister’s beau is a buffoon. In both, brother and sister have been subjected to trauma, and adult catastrophes, long before any child should. Even the titles, Fool for love and Before you get married, suggest a romantic comedy, until the curtain rises. It might be different if Jason and Alicia were iconoclasts. If what others think didn’t matter. But maybe it does. And, in any case, they believe that what they want is wrong.

In Before you get married, Gonzalez explores what most of us believe is the pinnacle of human attachment. That the intensity of wedlock is far stronger. Which (again) is not to say that Platonic relationships are not as meaningful, or poor substitutes, or even a given. As a culture we assume so much. There are lousy marriages and deeply caring friendships. Jason and Alicia are faced with a dilemma. However they find themselves now, they were raised as brother and sister. No rationalizing can change that. And so the two are left to muddle through an impossible situation. One way or another they must forfeit a relationship they cherish.

Franky Gonzalez has created a phenomenal work of theatre, here, navigating a profoundly disturbing topic with reflection and sober reasoning. There are so many opportunities here to miscalculate or back off or equivocate. He took on a devastating subject and forged a powerful, unflinching narrative, of two people who find themselves shaken to the core, through no fault of their own. By making the show an immersive experience, we are asked to be braver than we might want. Gonzalez is a masterful, intelligent artisan.

It’s hard to do justice to Myrick and Oustalet’s performance in this emotionally charged show. Needless to say, tone here is everything, and both bring nuance and meticulous presence to a drama that’s 90% visceral. With the audience being so close, it’s amazing they’re able to keep focused, engaging us in every syllable, inflection, layer of meaning.

Bishop Arts Theatre Center presented: Before you get married (an immersive experience) by Franky Gonzalez. 215 South Tyler Street, Dallas, Texas 75208-4934. 214-948-0716. bishopartstheatrecenter.org

 

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