It looks as if the Year(s) of the Woman—featuring the vaunted #MeToo movement—and the growing number of produced plays by women must be synchronous in some way. The synchronicity is having an effect that should have been predictable but perhaps hasn’t been.
That would be the increasing appearance of plays concerning problems limited to women. Take, for example, Charly Evon Simpson’s Behind the Sheet, the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s latest EST/Sloan Project entry. (Yes, a male playwright might have taken up Simpson’s weighty subject. Nevertheless, certain conditions still are more likely concerns for women than men.)
Since Simpson’s insistent work is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation selection, it has to do with science and in this case, medical science. It follows a physician/surgeon, George (Joel Ripka), attempting over many surgical procedures during the 1840s in the South to resolve the development of fistulas in women who’ve spent inordinate time in labor—fistulas being breakdowns in the vaginal walls.
If a male playwright had taken on the topic, it’s a fair enough bet that he may have focused more on the doctor. Not so Simpson. She does give sufficient stage time to the white doctor and his selfish wife Josephine (Megan Tusing), but her more pressing involvement is with the slave women George has purchased from their owners for the length of his explorations.
They are Philomena (Naomi Lorrain), Dinah (Jehan O. Young), Sally (Cristina Pitter), Mary (Amber Reauchean Williams) and Betty (Nia Calloway). The five slaves may have been relieved of their plantation duties, but they’re obligated to do George’s bidding. This runs to multiple surgeries during which the doctor—who admits he hadn’t earlier been interested in women’s anatomy—becomes more and more dedicated to solving the fistula challenges. (The unfortunate repercussions of fistulas are detailed more than once in the intermisssionless 90-minute work.)
Simpson bases her play on the biography of J. Marion Sims, who carried out his Mount Meigs, Alabama experiments from 1844-49.and has since had the reputation as “father of modern gynecology.” He persisted in his procedures—removing dead tissue and clearing up the infections that regularly followed each failed attempt—until he got it right.
Simpson’s hewing to the recorded facts does sometime give her play the feel of a medical-journal essay, but she has a few dramatist’s wiles up her sleeve to enliven the serious ambience. Her biggest achievement—on Lawrence E. Moten III’s sparse set (mottled white-and-brown walls, a long table, a few chairs, an end table holding a Sims speculum, et cetera)—is creating three-dimensional lives for the suffering women.
The most prominent is Philomena, initially George’s favorite and the one whose tasks are the lightest, since she caters to the suspicious Josephine. Of the others Sally is the hard-nosed one, and Betty is the one most of them dislike. Mary and Dinah have plenty to say as they try to endure the many unsuccessful surgeries that leave them moving slowly and fearing their next painful probe that ends with George’s sewing them up yet one more time.
Simpson’s also inserts a relationship having (apparently) nothing to do with the good Dr. Sims. She allows George to have a sexual interest in Philomena, whose pregnancy seems a consequence of their union (and the obvious cause of Josephine’s suspicions). Philomena is the less pleased about the situation and even less so when she becomes fistula-afflicted after her baby arrives dead. In time Betty becomes the object of George’s extra-marital attention—and pregnant.
These dramatic twists are a mite predictable but maybe not as bothersome as they sound. Another Behind the Sheets aspect that’s noticeable but allowable is the languorous pace as which it’s played, as Colette Robert directs. It could be that Simpson and she are thinking of how we often view antebellum existence as well as how uncomfortable the women are when walking.
Also taking the edge off the frequently ambling comings-and-goings are the cast members’ playing. All of them are commendably able at bringing out the characters’ nuances. That includes those named above, as well as Shawn Randall as timid, well-meaning Lewis, who has a crush on Philomena, and Stephen James Anthony as George’s assistant Samuel, who’s hoping to learn from his boss. They all look period-perfect in Sarah Woodham’s costumes.
An extra-added plus: Due to their damage, the women give off a strong aroma. They rely on home-made perfumes as the antidote. At one point they offer a recipe, and for the wannabe perfumers in the audience, it sounds worth taking down.
There’s no way of saying that Behind the Sheet is an easy play to watch. It’s hardly mere entertainment. But Simpson’s drama is bold, deserving of attention and understanding. Though she’s been working on it for some years under EST’s Youngblood program, its showing up now seems indisputably serendipitous.
Behind the Sheet opened January 17, 2019, at the Curt Dempster Theatre and runs through February 3. Tickets and information: ensemblestudiotheatre.org
