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May 01, 2007

Fefu: a witty wondrous winner

Staff Writer

The Hamline University Theatre finished up their 76th season last week with Maria Irene Fornes’ play Fefu and her Friends. The 1977 play has won numerous awards including an Obie (short for “Off-Broadway Theater Award”) and was once directed by the playwright in Minneapolis during the 1980s. Jeff Turner, an associate professor of theatre at hamline, directed the production which ran April 20-28.

As the title suggests, the story centers around Fefu (Hannah Steblay) and seven of her closest friends: Cecilia (Johnanna Ganz), Paula (Hannah Giersdorf), Emma (Ruth Kohtz), Cindy (Danielle Krivinchuk), Sue (Samantha Kuhn), Julia (Mira Stancevic) and Christina (Caitlin Ray). Set in the spring of 1935, the first act of the play takes place in the living room of Fefu’s New England estate where the women have gathered to organize a charity event.

The second act introduces the atypical setup that the play is arguably best known for. Audience members are split up into groups based on the color of their ticket and then led outside of the theater by “tour guides.” There are four different scenes that take place all over the theater department and can be shown in any order; each group sees a different scene simultaneously before rotating. During this part of the story, the women reveal a variety of personal anguishes to one another as Fefu goes in and out of each scene.

Following an intermission, the play concludes back in the original theater space. After discussing their plans and speculating about the future, one of the women is suddenly killed and the story comes to a dramatic close.

Said by director Jeff Turner to “[Interrogate] female subjectivity while exploding the boundary lines of theatrical space,” Fefu and her Friends is ultimately a witty, though somewhat macabre, depiction of women’s discontent with their lives. The lack of a male actor (Fefu’s husband is referred to but never seen or heard) and unconventional set-up brings each feminist dilemma up close and, at times, uncomfortably personal for a unique experience not often seen in theater.

Although turnout was rather low compared to other recent productions (like last fall’s Dracula), it is likely the result of the play’s relative obscurity. For those who missed the play, there are still a handful of other events taking place on the Anne Simley Stage before the end of the year including the premiere of Hamline’s sitcom “On Campus” (May 5, 8-10 p.m.) and the Dance Ensemble’s spring performance (May 10-12, 7:30 p.m.).

Posted by dwright at May 1, 2007 08:42 PM

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