How to Transcend a Happy Marriage

By Joseph Cervelli

According to the dictionary,  “transcend” means to go beyond the limits. In Sarah Ruhl’s bewildering new play “How to Transcend a Happy Marriage”  at the Mitzi Newhouse the two couples we are introduced to most definitely take that extra step. 

Ruhl is an adventurous, versatile and imaginative playwright as witnessed by two of her far superior plays “The Clean House” and “In the Next Room, or the vibrator play.” The first thing you notice as you enter the theater is a carcass of what appears to be a deer hanging over the living room in Jane (Robin Weigert) and Michael’s (Brian Hutchison) house.  A kind of avant garde art piece? Not quite. As soon as the play begins it is taken down and carted over the shoulder of one of the play’s characters. Food and sex take up a good deal of this play along with some surreal situations that occur in the bizarre second act.

Along with Jane and Michael are their best friends George (Marisa Tomei) and Paul (Omar Metwally) dining on cheese and wine. Jane starts to speak about the unusual temp (Lena Hall) in her office whom we later find out has three names Pip/Deborah/Diane.  She lives in a polyamorous relationship with two men David (Austin Smith) and Freddie (David McElwee).  Jane goes on to tell them that the temp will only eat fresh meat of an animal she has killed whether running wild or in capture.  You certainly  won’t find her at the local butcher. But what perks the interest of the two couples is the type of  relationship she is in. Questions are asked about her right from the onset and you know these four otherwise typical married people find this situation  more than a little inviting. So, Jane decides to Pip (as she is known to her two partners) and her two companions over for New Year’s Eve. 

First, Ruhl introduces the two young men. Freddie is a mathematician and we get to hear some less than stirring commentaries on the Pythagorean theory. While David who graduated from Harvard happily points out that he really does nothing. He serves some hash brownies for the couples which get them in the mood. Pip gets things going with her intensely sexual rendition of the classic “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain.” I don’t think I can ever hear that song again without thinking of Pip’s sensual gyrations. As you can easily figure out, group sex will be on the menu.  While fully clothed they all become entangled with each other.  Well, let’s say they are all dressed until Michael and Jane’s teen daughter Jenna (Naian Gonzalez Norvind) arrives home early and sees her mother naked. Not exactly what a teen desires to witness. 

The second act plays out almost like another play entirely. George and Pip are hunting in the woods for deer when quite accidentally George shoots a dog and both she and Pip are put in jail. Although George is released, I won’t divulge what happens to Pip. Not that you might exactly believe it. Things in both households are in a turmoil. George and Paul’s home is hounded by animal rights activists and Jenna refuses to come home after witnessing what occurred.  It seems that what transpired in the first act is not all that accurate. What really happened and what George thought she was part of were quite different. It all is a bit of conjecture and a tease on Ruhl’s part. 

Even under Rebecca Taichman’s speedy direction and with very fine performances by all the actors--most especially Tomei and Hall--the play remains as elusive as Pip’s character. Is the metamorphosis in sexual mores that both couples go through helpful in dealing with life and raising children? Was there an instability and inadequacy in their marriages that needed further exploring? Is the symbol of eating animals that one kills a kind of cannibalistic pleasure? 

While the play is never boring there is a peculiarity to it that leaves you as an observer finding yourself pondering less than the playwright’s intentions. 

Tickets are available at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater 150 West 65th Street (Lincoln Center) or by calling 212.239.6200. The limited engagement as of this date is May 7.

PHOTO CREDIT: KYLE FROMAN

Email: jcerv58957@aol.com