BODY OF WATER Plays EXIT Theatre 11/6-22, Discussion With Playwright 11/21

A middle-aged couple awakens in a beautiful country house on a hill, surrounded by trees and glimpses of water. There's just one problem. They can't remember their own names, much less the relationship between them. Their ensuing pursuit of memory yields both terrifying and comic results, setting them adrift on a leaky raft of postmodern anxiety.

For Moss (James Allen Brewer) and Avis (Holly Silk) the loss of memory equates to loss of self, a disorientation that produces a paralyzing loss of agency. Unable to move in any direction, they are at sea without a paddle. We're in Samuel Beckett territory here, with a generous splash of Neil Simon, stuck between a familiar-seeming reality and the terror of a missing "self."

Enter Wren (Halsey Varaday) whose passive/aggressive behavior only serves to confound Moss and Avis's efforts to get a hold on reality. Who is she? Their daughter? Their attorney? Their

torturer? The latter seems altogether possible when Wren forces them to look at grisly morgue photos of a bludgeoned child-their own? Wren is cruel one moment, kind the next. She keeps changing her story, and, by extension, theirs. Reality is as slippery as an ice cube in Wren's hands.

The Spare Stage production of Lee Blessing's A Body of Water - a Bay Area premiere - opens November 6 and runs through November 22 at EXIT Theatre, 156 Eddy St., in San Francisco, with Spare Stage Artistic Director Stephen Drewes at the helm.

A Body of Water premiered at the Guthrie Theater in 2005 after being work-shopped at the Playlab Festival. Blessing, the author of over 20 plays and screenplays, is perhaps best known for his play A Walk in the Woods, the story of an impossible friendship that grows between an earnest young American arms negotiator and his more cynical Soviet counterpart during their private walks together.

The playwright is considered a major force in post-1960's American theater for plays that are thoughtful and often controversial explorations in the variances of human relationships. His work has been nominated for Tony and Olivier Awards, as well as for the Pulitzer Prize. He currently resides in New York City.

During the final weekend of of A Body of Water Blessing will be in residence at the Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco, leading a writing workshop. He has generously agreed to discuss his work with the audience following the Nov. 21 performance

Director Stephen Drewes launched his career as an actor at Berkeley Rep in 1970, and went on to a 35-year career as a professor of Theatre Arts, actor, and stage director. He co-founded Spare Stage in 2008 with AaRon Murphy, the company's executive director. Drewes and Murphy, both native san Franciscans, met as teacher and student in 1993, when Murphy enrolled in one of Drewes' acting classes.

James Allen Brewer (Moss) trained as an actor with Uta Hagen at HB Studio in New York City and at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre. He began his professional career as a singer and dancer, touring nationally and internationally, and appeared in regional theatre when he was tapped by cartoonist Garry Trudeau to embody "Doonesbury" rock star "Jimmy Thudpucker," co-writing the music and lyrics and providing the character's voice for the Academy Award-nominated film, based on the comic strip, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes. In 2005 he produced, co-created, and starred in SIMPLY SONDHEIM - A 75th Birthday Salute, San Francisco's concert tribute celebrating the life and work of legendary Broadway composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

Holly Silk (Avis), a fourth generation San Franciscan, began her career in the arts as a dancer, ultimately touring with Dick Bright's SRO for 16 years, performing throughout the world. She has been and continues to perform as the "Girl in the Fishbowl" at San Francisco's legendary Bimbos 365 Club in Northbeach. Her previous experience with Spare Stage was as Cory in Private Eyes.

Halsey Varaday (Wren) grew up in Los Altos and as a teenager sang with the San Francisco Girls Chorus with whom she toured extensively in the US, Japan and China, and performed with San Francisco Opera. She attended Yale where she sang with a cappella groups touring Asia and Europe. Her numerous Bay Area credits include Brenda Lee, Petula Clark and Janis Joplin in Beehive, the 1960's Musical; and Girleen in The Lonesome West both with San Jose Stage Company. She also played Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew with The Shady Shakespeare Theatre Company, Squeaky Fromme in Assassins at City Lights Theatre Company, Madge in Picnic with Palo Alto Players, Helen of Troy in The Trojan Women at Foothill College and the title role in Gypsy with Saratoga Drama Group.

Tickets, $24/$18 seniors and students, available by calling 800-838-3006. Show times are 8 pm Friday and Saturs, 7 pm Sundays.

Spare Stage, a company devoted to exceptional scripts and simplicity of production, launched its first full season this year with the US premiere of Michael Frayn's 1993 comedy Here, eliciting positive reviews and sold-old shows at the EXIT Theatre. It was followed by the San Francisco premiere of Yasmina Reza's The Unexpected Man starring Ken Ruta and Abigail Van Alyn, which received rave reviews and an extension. Blessing's A Body of Water is the company's third production of the season.

Photo credit: Walter McBride

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