The Raft

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Ambitious, they are. And thorough too. Modern Muse Theatre Company opened with a World Premiere of Denver Playwright, Coleen Hubbard’s deliciously insightful play The Raft at The Bug Theatre.

Marta (Gracie Carr) and Elan (Martha Harmon Pardee) are sisters facing different issue pushing hard at middle age in The Raft.

Producing a world premiere play, however, wasn’t enough for Modern Muse. Hubbard found inspirations from characters in one of her previous plays written 15 years ago, Motherload. Modern Muse also features staged readings of Motherload. And if that wasn’t enough for this talented young production company, they open this weekend with a musical The Last Five Years written by Jason Robert Brown at the Buntport Theatre, 717 Lipan Street.

Hubbard took an every day occurrence, those nagging annoying voices asking absurd questions, pulling, tugging, taunting, and teasing living in everyone’s inside world, provided them with artistic ramifications, enticing them to reveal themselves. Would that the nagging voices were as cute and humorous as the Gaze, as they are known.

In The Raft, directed by Jim Hunt, Marta (Gracie Carr) and Elan (Martha Harmon Pardee) are sisters facing different issue pushing hard at middle age. Marta faces her 50th birthday.

The Raft, as well as Motherload, is a perceptive, deadly honest examination of a huge slice of slice.

What do you do when the kids are in college, your husband buys a second restaurant, a passion of his, and all of his time is spent at work? When you’ve gone the voluntary route, when once upon a time you gave your heart and soul to environmental issues, and now the house is empty, well almost empty? There’s those voices penetrating the silence of thought, nagging, prompting, reiterating and they just won’t go away.

Go to bed, that’s what. And sleep for three days. In between bouts of sleep, there is wine to drink and chocolates to revel in. And, there’s those voices.

In The Raft, there are three. Erik Holum plays Gaze 1 and Barney. Julia Elstun Payne plays Gaze 2 and Candice, and David Russel plays Gaze 3 and Hal. They strut, they smirk, they lean over Marta’s bed, they surround conversations Marta has with her husband, Peter (John Gaydeski), and with her sister Elan. Of course, Peter loves Marta. It’s obvious from the audience side of the stage, though not always obvious to Marta. She should be doing something. She just doesn’t know what.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Elan has had enough of her slovenly sister and bops in to make things right. They will go to lunch and then go shopping, except it doesn’t turn out that way.

Marta turns Carr inside out, allowing Carr to reveal the inside longing of Marta. She’s not really slovenly, but right now it is the only thing she cares about. Pardee grabs a hold of Elan by the throat, allowing her to prance with fork-tongue enthusiasm. Gaydeski fills the shoes of the happy as a clam Peter who thrives on his heavy work schedule. He has eyes to see the restaurant business. He has no eyes to see what has happened to Marta.

And the Gaze chatters and cavorts around the stage.

Hubbard provides crisp brilliantly written lines with humorous side pockets stitched into the fabric of everyday lives.

Pardee unravels Elan. Marta inspired by those nagging voices seeks a career counselor, Candice. Marta’s application has to strike a familiar humorous chord with mothers everywhere who find themselves in the same position. Candice notices large gaps in Marta’s time frame. Asking Marta what happened Candice sees no humor in being told noses were wiped, lunches made, washing, cleaning, cooking, got two sons into college as Marta rattles off a list as long as both arms and both legs. Candice offers her a job dressed as a lobster handing out two-for-one shrimp cocktail coupons. This is a very funny scene and could become a comedy classic.

With the tantalizing nudges from the Gaze, all three of them, Marta explores the world of what once was.

A reality check shakes some of the cobwebs loose when her son Barney announces his girlfriend is pregnant.

Tina Anderson designed a delightful set fitting the varied moods and places Marta travels to both in reality and in her mind. The three-voiced Gaze has plenty of places to lounge, lop over, hang onto, pose always in the midst of everything all of the time.

The special staged readings of Motherload takes the characters back to 1988. Rhaelia Hansum reads the young Marta; Jessica Robblee, Elan; Josh Hartwell, Peter, (Step Pearce read Peter for two previous dates); Michael Morgan, Luke, Judy Phalen-Hill, Nadine (Marta and Elan’s mother). Darren R. Schroader is Gaze One, Hilary Blair is Gaze Two, Erika DeShay is Gaze Three, and Maro Casparian reads the stage directions.

Witty, touching, hysterical, the staged reading is extraordinarily well done, maintaining a professional sense, and at the same time allowing the characters to come out to play. Between the two, the production of The Raft and the staged reading of Motherload, the varied actors provide a cohesive integrity with the characters from 1988 to the present. Unfortunately, there remains only three more readings of Motherload, February 18 and 25 at 3:00 PM and February 23 at 8:00 PM. Tickets for the reading are only $10.00. This is a brilliant concept for Modern Muse to present both.

Although certainly not necessary to see both Motherload and The Raft, it does make for combined enjoyment. Both plays stand on their own two feet with the support of that nagging Gaze.

Hubbard has taken the every day world, giving it strength, humor, verbal verbosity, and robust identification, revealing the truth about the Gaze, the vital part the voices play when people listen to them, play with them, gaining Marta’s strength in The Raft to finally tell them to go away.