Metropolitan PlayhouseVirtual Playhouse

Presents A Screened Reading of

THE OUTSIDE

Written by SUSAN GLASPELL

Directed by RACHAEL LANGTON

Featuring

LLUVIA ALMANZA, DAVID PATRICK FORD, JONATHAN HORVATH, TERESA KELSEY, & JAMES ROSS

Graphic Settings by LIZ ENGELHARDT

Talkback with SHARON FRIEDMAN, PhD, Glaspell scholar and associate professor at NYU's Gallatin School for Independent Study

Available through February 10, 2021

www.metropolitanplayhose.org/virtualplayhouse

February 6, 2021, 8 p.m.

THE OUTSIDE in this play refers to the far outer shore of the Cape. The reclusive Mrs. Patrick lives there alone, in an abandoned life-saving station she bought years ago as a summer home. Inside, the tired old building is devoid of decoration and personal touches. A silent young widow, Allie, helps her with housekeeping and chores. The only sound is the howling wind and the crashing waves.

This night is shockingly different. When local men see a body floating just offshore and drag it to the shelter, the women are forced to deal with it. Not physically. That would be too easy. The drowned man brings a rush of emotion and memory that neither woman wants to confront.

That dead stranger triggers them to speak, converse, reveal. It is an existential dialogue of life versus death, buried hopes versus trying to live a new dream when the old dream is dead. Does one get out and move forward, beyond the loss, or do you lock yourself in a kind of living death?

Outspoken feminist SUSAN GLASPELL is a master of this genre. The thought-provoking play was written in 1917, and reflects the opinion of “society” at that time. A woman was pitied if she had no husband. So sad. Glaspell firmly believed that women were permitted to be single, educated, independent, and live whatever lifestyle they chose. That was some radical stuff back then, and she savored every moment of her defiance.

Great acting and great graphics, as always.

-Karen D’Onofrio-