Appliance

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

It never occurred to me to use socks for dusting. I have been under the false impression socks were for black lab puppies to steal, chew, throw, or entice Number 1 dog into a game of tug-of-sock. I learned about dusting with socks from Naomi Boyle (Kerry Beebe) who has a compulsion to clean, and count cupboard items simply because she doesn’t know what else to do. Talking incessantly, she has to. If she stops, she’s going to feel something she wants, needs, to avoid. It is so much easier to run her mouth full-speed ahead while her brain runs on empty, or so it appears. Beebe does a magnificent job capturing Naomi’s running away in place with an empty brain, while her soul stands firm, just hidden.

Naomi can say the word thing. She can say thing often. What she can’t say is the word cancer.

Unruly and obnoxious on the outside, hurting and anxious on the inside, Naomi keeps Lindsay Price’s play Appliance at the Victorian Theatre in an uproar of chaotic laughter and heartbreaking revelations.

Her daughter, Ruth (Jillann Tafel) lives in the hyped up world of recurring breast cancer. All Naomi can do is clean and refer to the thing, and send a computerized toaster.

On one level, Appliance is about breast cancer, filled to the brim with silly laughter, poignant laughter, and a double-edged sword curved into a smile. But it is more than that.

Appliance is about human beings learning to be human; about human beings learning they have emotions running from A to Z. It is about human beings learning that there are times it is OK to cry, scream, express frustrated anger, to be irrational, to admit to admit fear, and even OK to give into compulsive behavior because they do not know what else to do.

Appliance is the inaugural production for And Toto Too Production Company, with Susan Lyles as Executive Director. Many years of planning have gone into this company dedicated to promoting women in the arts “with a focus on producing new works by women playwrights.” The company read over 100 scripts before deciding on this honest funny, heart-rending play.

And where did the name And Toto Too come from? With Lyles originally from Kansas, she said everywhere she went, someone would always ask, “And how is your little dog?” The joke got old very fast, but the joke went on, and on, driving Lyles nuts, until she decided to embrace the idea into her production company, which just happens to fit perfectly into Appliance. The play concerns itself with embracing difficult ideas, terrifying realities, and humans who are very different, and at the same time, very much the same.

Appliance revolves around the fear of cancer, and loss, but it also addresses misconceptions of blindness, the secrets of sexuality, accepting divorce, the gnawing games of “you’re not being honest with me, but don’t ask me to be honest because I can’t say the words.”

Tafel gives a riveting performance as a successful restaurant critic for a top magazine, comfortable flying all over the world at a moment’s notice, angst over her mother’s barging into her apartment unannounced, stressed over receiving appliances whenever life gets upside down, and the reoccurrence of breast cancer. Appliances and Ruth don’t see eye to eye. As Simon (J. Heston Gray) explains to Naomi, “She can’t even figure out how to run her electric toothbrush.” Now she has received a toaster that can be programmed for dark toast every Tuesday at 8:00 AM.

Ruth has just bought an old coffee table because it smells like her grandmother’s dining room table. Simon helps carry it up the stairs into her apartment. It’s heavy, he objects, suggesting they leave it by the door. Only those people who really want to get in will have to climb over it. This sends Ruth and Simon into a giggling fantasy trip. Would her mother climb over it? Would her impetuous sister? He can’t understand why she bought the table anyway. He liked her old one. Laughing, he sinks into the sofa, saying, “You’re spattering me with details.”

Best friends, Simon and Ruth rely heavily upon each other. He may be blind, but his vision exceeds most eyesight. Gray embraces his role with humor, dignity, and believability.

On top of everything else, now Ruth must contend with Chemo, her doctors, and her feelings that get chopped to pieces from family interference. When she has a chance to run away, she does, leaving Simon and Naomi to unexpectedly face each other. She’s exceptional at asking questions, just not wiling to answer them. “I don’t want to pry,” she says to Simon. He only laughs, “I see the can opener in your hand.”

A bottle of ouzo and a game encourages the two to move from a wild side step avoidance dance toward a loose waltz of understanding with music punctuated by laughter.

In a solemn moment, Simon learns why the appliances are so important to Naomi, and why she aches to have them meaningful to Ruth.

Ruth plays hide and seek with her true feelings, discovering hiding and seeking more appealing then finding. Her finding allows her to come unglued face to face with her fears. They are angry, discovering that is OK. While they fall apart, Naomi finds the courage to say the dreaded word.

There is no magical fairy tail ending. Naomi’s courage only pokes its head through for a moment, but it’s a beginning. Ruth does realize she can’t run away completely, and Simon reigns in his fears from a run away ride to an easy lope through the wilderness.

Unlike many experiences tied to cancer, Appliance embraces the reality sliced with human emotion, brilliant perceptive writing, and strong masterful performances by Tafel, Gray and Beebe. Fun, humor, and wit play a very large role.

Appliance deserves attention. And Toto Too deserves acknowledging. With its first production, it promises to have a huge impact on the theatre community. Appliance is a production that begs to be extended. Miss this show and you may wish you hadn’t. Miss Appliance, and you may find you’ll need it, when it isn’t around to lean on, learn from and laugh with.

And, yes, socks do work wonders when it comes to dusting.