WHY WE HAVE A BODY - Magic Theatre
SF CHRONICLE
"Body" is a beautifully crafted production, smoother and more cohesive in Katie Pearl's stagings
than the original. Cutting the intermission and the earlier division into distinct sections helps, as
does the openness of Marsha Ginsberg's spare, broad set, on which Pearl paces the action as fluidly
as its metaphors.
....the scenes between Lili and Renee. Their coy, evasive flirtation on a plane is sweet, and their first
date is a sly delight. And when they get back together after a first separation, English's wary
vulnerability and Dines' wry certainty turn metaphor to stage magic.
...the themes explored in this play — sexual identity, finding your place in the world, love — resonate just as strongly today. It’s testament to the strength of the material which includes one quotable quote after another. I might have filled up my notepad on this evening more completely than ever before.
Acting is typical Magic: top drawer. Delivery by all four of these women — English, Dines, Holt, Mason — is strong, and occasionally even electric ... Confidence is not in short supply in these performances...we can’t help but be absorbed by their intrepid determination.
THE SF EXAMINER
Private investigator Lili (a luminous Lauren
English)... Her dysfunctional
sister, Mary (Maggie Mason, charmingly
hyperactive)...Their mother, Eleanor (a powerfully focused
Lorri Holt)...
There’s a fourth woman, too, played with captivating alacrity by Rebecca Dines: Renee, a paleontologist ....
The superb cast — directed by Katie Pearl with careful attention to comic and poignant nuances
— makes use of every inch of space as well as every syllable of Chafee’s witty text. By the end,
each woman’s individual quest — for love, for a rebirth of sorts, for family, for human
connection — touches our hearts in unexpected ways.
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