‘Rapture, Blister, Burn’ is scorchingly funny, smart
Take note of “Rapture, Blister, Burn,” onstage at Mad Cow Theatre in downtown Orlando. It’s quite simply one of the most thrilling plays of the year.
Playwright Gina Gionfriddo has crafted an exquisite comedy — smart without being pretentious, deep without being preachy, and funny, oh is it funny — not jokey, not silly, but genuinely funny.
Mad Cow’s production, directed with style by Monica Long Tamborello, does this Pulitzer Prize nominee justice — with actors who knock it out of the park every time they open their mouths. Heck, they can keep their mouths closed: Just look at the magnificent Devan Seaman’s horrified face when she realizes just whom her professor is dating.
That professor is Catherine, an academic who studies pornography and its effects on society. After moving home to look after her ailing mother, Catherine reconnects with old friends: Don, a former flame, and Gwen, his wife — and the woman who “stole” him from Catherine.
The set-up is a bit contrived, but it gets your attention fast. And when Gwen and Avery — that’s Seaman’s plainspoken twentysomething — take a class from Catherine, things get even more interesting.
A lot of talking fills this play, but Tamborello deftly keeps her characters in motion so the action doesn’t stagnate. And what they are talking about fascinates as much as it entertains: Feminism, relationships, settling, making choices.
Seaman won a Sentinel 2017 Critic’s Pick award for her comic skills and expertly puts them to use once more. It turns out Avery has a thing or two to teach her elders, and Seaman’s delivery and demeanor always finds the comedy without sacrificing the character.
As conflicted Catherine, Cynthia Beckert has never seemed more human. Familiar to Mad Cow audiences as the too-cool jetsetter in “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” or a swaggering fighter pilot in “Grounded,” here she’s a woman who has seemingly made a roaring success of her life — yet she’s not satisfied.
Sarah French, Shami McCormick and Patrick Brezyan do top-notch work of taking characters that could fall into caricature and making them real and likable, despite their foibles. By the end of this exhilarating delight, you’ll likely be rooting for all of them to find happiness in this crazy world.