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What
would you do if it were you?
23rd August 2008
By Renée
Maloney
William
Mastrosimone’s powerful 1982 drama about sexual assault, revenge and
justice
comes to Strathmore this month.
Directed by
Drew Mason for STAG, it opens on Thursday August 21 and runs until
Saturday, August 30.
 Marjorie,
attacked by a masked assailant (Raul),
lives in mortal fear that the unidentified man will strike again –
especially since he knows her address. Sure enough, Raul
breaks into Marjorie's home and subjects her to a night of terror
and sexual humiliation. But Marjorie manages to turn the tables on
her attacker, knocking him unconscious and rendering him tied up and
helpless. The remainder of the drama charts Marjorie's battle with
herself: Should she turn the attacker over to the authorities – who
may well set him free – or should she mete out her own punishment?
Terry and Patricia, Marjorie’s roommates, portray different points
of view about rape within society. Terry, a rape victim when she was
a teenager, believes that Raul will not be convicted since a rape
did not occur and there is no proof. Patricia believes in the
judicial system and insists on calling the cops. The three friends
are also turned on each other at various points in the play, due to
the Raul’s knowledge of each of them through stalking them. For
instance, close to the play's opening, he reveals to Terry that
Marjorie had been dating Terry's boyfriend.
 The
US
playwright
William Mastrosimone was born in 1947 in Trenton, New Jersey. He is
a prolific writer of plays dealing with social issues including
Bang, Bang You're Dead
(written as a direct response to the spate of school shootings in
the US),
Sleepwalk
(a story again focusing on the traumas of modern US teenage
society), and also The Woolgatherer, Shivaree,
Cat’s Paw, Afghan Women and Nanawatai (upon which
the film
The Beast
is based).
Drew Mason, the Director, has acted in plays in Melbourne (last year
in The Laramie Project with STAG, ‘Allo ‘Allo with
Essendon Theatre Company and It’s Not Your Day with La Mama),
and directed many plays for the Nash Theatre, New Farm, Brisbane
(including Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2005, Much Ado About
Nothing for which he won the Nash Theatre Director of the Year
Award in 2002, and Safe Sex in 2001).
 Drew
spoke to Theatre People about the upcoming season. “We have put the
play (written in the early 80s in America) into a contemporary
Australian context. This was done as the issues and "solutions"
presented in Extremities
are equally relevant today. The play is now located somewhere
outside Melbourne. I see the play as being four differing viewpoints
on the course of justice as explored by each of the four
characters. We have worked very closely using the Meisner Technique
to create realistic portrayals of people pushed to their extreme
limits. As such, there is a great deal of manipulation from one
character to another, a lot of getting under each other's skin and
into each other's heads.”
“The show has progressed wonderfully from auditions to final dress
rehearsal. The actors are certainly expressing their love for this
project in each rehearsal and the characters they have created are
so vibrant, so energetic and so moving. As a director, I have been
brought to the brink of tears on many occasions. The entire company
is very dedicated to bringing this play to life and doing complete
justice to the ideas and words of William Mastrosimone. The cast are
certainly ready for their audience and they will leave them with a
moving, confronting and challenging piece of theatre they won't by
likely to forget for sometime.”
 The
Cast include Kellie Raymond as Marjorie; Dean Mitchell as Raul;
Hannah Williams as Terry and Cathy Patti as Patricia. For more
information on this enthralling production, see our
What’s On section.
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