Review: “Tania in the Getaway Van”

The Pool, pop-up theater company brings a 70s-flavoured feminist play by Susan Bernfield to the Flea. 

As the audience assembles in the Flea’s Siggy Theater for Tania in the Getaway Van, 1970s commercials are projected on the wall upstage (projections design by David Bengali). Young white women with perfect hair giggle and smile seductively, advertising deodorants, Kool-Aid, hosiery and cake mix. The news announcements about the kidnapping of Patty Hearst pop up from time to time but get cut off as if somebody is switching channels.

Madeline Wise, Caitlin Morris and Courtney G. Williams in Tania in the Getaway Van, photo by Ilyce Meckler

Patty Hearst, or rather her “brainwashed” alter ego, Tania, is a hero for 11-year-old Laura (Caitlin Morris). Frankly, the moments of impersonating the famous victim of Stockholm syndrome are the only time when the kid is vibrant and interested in life. Tie-dye t-shirt, braids and bandana covering her eyes, Laura hides in the closet pretending to be the granddaughter of a publishing magnate. At the age of 19, Patty was kidnapped by the radical left-wing group known as SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) and after months spent in captivity, turned terrorist herself and changed her name to Tania. 

           

Laura might not know what “feminism” is, but she has an embodiment of it in front of her, namely her mother, Diane (Annie McNamara). At the age of 36 and with three kids on her hands, she decides to go back to school and get a job, an ambition unheard of amongst her circle of San Francisco Bay Area housewives. Restless and sputtering with waves of self-liberation, Diane seems unsympathetically neurotic at first. It is tempting to side with the mellow Laura, embarrassed by her mother’s eagerness to get to the core of things and people.

It is gradually revealed that Laura is uncomfortable with herself in the first place. Torn between her role model, Patty Hearst, and the images of women with perfect hair from TV shows she watches daily, Laura enters puberty confused and unhappy. Her friend Stacey (Courtney G. Williams, who also doubles as Katelyn in act two) seams to take life easier. She rushes to Laura’s house to share the news that her boobs finally started growing and views stewardesses as a higher cast of women.

The kids’ babysitter, Carol (Madeline Wise) also wants to be a stewardess, of which she sings a cappella in a spotlight of her private thoughts. Each girl sings her inner monologue at some point, which helps the show with its playful and fast moving dynamic.        

Tania, propagating women empowerment, starts strong but falls flat in the 2nd act, which takes place in 2012. Diane, now 73 and a politician and Laura, a 47-year-old professor at Columbia, sit at the table of an outdoor café in Manhattan, drinking wine and calling each other amazing. Later, Diane’s assistant, Katelyn, joins them and they talk, seemingly forever, about the fruits of women liberation movement and the effect of it on their lives.

Both McNamara and Morris give it one hundred percent and are convincing as snarky, privileged women. But their lengthy dialog wanders in circles and confining them to a restaurant table kills the performance’s energy. Casting Courtney G. Williams as both Stacy and Katelyn is a bit confusing. I don’t mind double casting when it comes to the episodic roles, but since Stacy is an important character, I couldn’t stop thinking that it is the grownup version of her sitting at the table.

Tania, the most important off-stage character, is gone from the second act. Even the supposedly oppressed Ms. Marinkovich, who drove her car into a creak in 1975, gets mentioned. It was a wakeup call for Diane back then. According to 47-year-old Laura she never received hers. Hearing it from a woman who has it all is a little pathetic.          

__________

Tania in the Getaway Van plays at Flea Theater, 20 Thomas St., through December 16, 2017. The running time is 1 hour and 35 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $25 and $35. The performance schedule varies, for more information visit thepoolplays.org.

Tania in the Getaway Van is written by Susan Bernfield. Directed by Portia Krieger. It is produced by The Pool. Music by Fan Zhang. Projections design by David Bengali.

The cast is Annie McNamara, Caitlin Morris, Courtney G. Williams, and Madeline Wise.