Dysfunction seen as comedic in NW Campus production
by Laura Vatalaro, reporter

    A dark comedy by playwright Christopher Durang, Baby with the Bathwater presents a cynically humorous view of a dysfunctional family.

   The play will run on NW Campus Dec. 5-8 in the Theatre.

   The play centers around the life of Daisy, the unexpected baby, who becomes a boy who dresses like a girl and tries to become a normal man.

   Daisy’s main dilemma is that he is not really loved by his parents. They don’t really see him, Douglas Davidson, director, said.

   “His mother names him Daisy and decides to make him a girl. He spends the first 12 years of his life in a dress until he realizes that does not suit him. He is masculine but has no identity of his own,” he said.

   As if by accident, Daisy gets married after 10 years of therapy and has a child of his own. Only then does he begin to find his own identity by loving his wife and child. It seems a miraculous cure through love.

   Robert Malone, a sophomore who plays Daisy, usually acts in dramatic productions but has enjoyed working in Bathwater because of its dark and serious comedic nature.

   Malone found he could relate to his character, Daisy, through his own life experience.

   “I was born in Ireland, and when I first came here, I had an accent. That kind of alienated me from my peer group when I was younger,” he said.

   “I could relate to Daisy because he is just a normal guy who has had an unusual upbringing. He suffers because of his parents’ problems more than his own. Deep down, he is really normal,” he said.

   Shannon Wright, sophomore, plays Daisy’s mother, Helen.

   Wright has been nominated for the Irene Ryan Scholarship and will be competing in February at Texas Christian University.

   Wright describes her character as being bitter to anyone she comes in contact with.

   “Helen is very happy to be having a baby in the beginning of the play, but she becomes absolutely nuts by the end of the show. She’s very out there,” she said.

   “Throughout the years, her husband John becomes an alcoholic, and she gives up her career as a novelist. She becomes very bitter and takes out her resentment on her child and husband,” she said.

   Allen Randall, sophomore, plays John, Daisy’s father.

   Randall has been in one other production and plans to perform in movies and television in the future.

   “John really wants to be a good dad but has no idea what it is like to be a husband and a father,” he said.

   “He loves his family very much but doesn’t ever live up to his responsibilities. His wife, Helen, never listens to him. In the end, he just gives up and becomes an old drunken, rambling fool,” he said.

   Several actors will play many characters in the production.

   Leah Carithers-Jeffers from NW Campus will play three characters, including Nanny, Kate and the principal.

   Carithers-Jeffers describes the principal, her favorite character, as crazy, out there and madly in love with a mute male secretary.

   “I just finished working on The Miracle Worker, which is a dramatic play about the life of Helen Keller. It was a pretty intense production, so it is nice to have a play like this that is just fun. You can just be crazy and have a good time,” she said.

   “Some of the action is crazy, but you can relate to it. In some way, you have been that demented in your life before. You hear things and you think ‘Oh yeah, I’ve done that before,’ so I can kind of relate to all of the characters,” she said.

   The cast of seven has been rehearsing five days a week, and usually average about 24 hours a week plus production and prep time, according to Davidson.

   “It has been challenging to let the actors stretch to play that kind of broadness and the most absurd level of action while at the same time keeping the roles real and grounded,” he said.

   “These actors have thrown themselves into it. The ones who have the least experience have really dived into it and have really come along. The more experienced actors have really taken the younger actors under their wing. It has just been a good feeling of ensemble, which you don’t always have in a production but always want,” he said.

   Davidson explained that Durang creates a very bleak and hopeless view of life for a young Daisy. As the play progresses, Daisy becomes a normal, functioning member of society.

   “In this play, Durang satires family dysfunction and the results of parents who are too narcissistic to pay attention to their child and instead remain children themselves,” he said.

   Davidson’s has directed five productions for TCC, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, A Christmas Carol and The Cripple of Inishmaan.

   His next production, Our Country’s Good, will be on South Campus and is a historical drama about the British convicts who were banished to Australia.

   Rehearsals will be January through February, and the play should open the first week in March.

   Auditions are scheduled the first week of the spring semester.

   Baby With the Bathwater will play Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

   Tickets are free to TCC students, faculty and staff.

   Tickets for adults are $5; seniors 65 and older are $3, and non-TCC students are $3.

   To make reservations, call 817-515-7724.