Oh what a wangled teb we weave. Wounds, children, wounds. Learn from it. Without wounds, what are you? – Man
The Play About the Baby written by Edward Albee. Here’s a play that’s really hard to describe. If an abstract painting were given a stage and written word, this play would be a pretty close example of it. Directed by UCSC student Lily Sorenson, this production takes the play and makes it a tragically hilarious show. The play follows a Boy (Nathan Cabrera) and a Girl (Hayley Jackson) as they are in their own Eden even after having their first child and having their happy sexual rompings (believe me they did not skimp on the romping, though there were no doing of the do happening on stage). However, the Man (Lucas Brandt) and Woman (Rachel Levy) convinced that the Boy and Girl are too happy, steals the baby and then act as though the baby never existed. Also sex is mentioned a lot.
If this sounds like a conventional dramatic plotline, then I must say that how I described it is not accurate. The show has an Alice in Wonderland feel if Alice had a baby and then Wonderland stole the baby, with monologues that seemingly make no sense in the show. While the Boy and Girl stay within the realm of reality, the Man and Woman is seen interacting with the audience and having extended monologues about forgetting who their mother was and having a painter as a lover. The fourth wall is breached so many times that I’m sure that it became as nonexistent as the supposed baby (Speaking of the baby based on how the show ended, I have decided to start calling it Schroedinger’s Baby).
Final thoughts – the actors did an absolute splendid job with the production, the set was made very well, and the lighting really enhanced the show. However, the play itself. Good god was it mindboggling. I personally left the show wondering if the baby even existed, which I am pretty sure was the goal of Albee when writing this play, if the line about the wangled teb is anything to judge by. All in all a great show with a somewhat questionable moral.