What’s a little drama among ‘Friends’?
Get ready to make yourself at home with “Fefu and Her Friends,” which opens Friday at Stars Playhouse.
Ellie Sivesind, who plays the title character, said the show brings audiences right into the action of eight women gathered at a home to prepare for a presentation.
“The playwright (MariaIrene Fornes) calls this a plotless play and it really is more like being dropped into a day in these women’s lives where you’re not necessarily fed all the information like in a typical narrative structure,” she wrote in an email.
Director Kara Coughenour said she’s been thinking about the play since first reading it in a script analysis class in college.
“I haven’t been able to get it out of my head ever since, so getting it onto a stage was the natural next step,” she wrote in an email.
The small northwest theater offered the perfect venue for the play.
Coughenour wrote, “The playhouse makes for a pretty intimate viewing experience, and I think that when people come to see it they will really feel like they’re in Fefu’s home and a part of this story themselves.”
The complex and powerful Fefu engages with her friends, including Julia (Rachel Daguman), who is still struggling from the psychological wounds of a hunting accident that put her in wheelchair.
Each of the other women — played by Leslie Aldrige, Andrea Vega, Justine Luevano, Maya Blackstone, Lorea Laverty Iturriria and Carlie Wood — navigate their different relationships and dynamics as the weekend carries on.
“This play is fascinating in how complex each of the characters is written,” Sivesind wrote. “In a play with all women, you often see common archetypes pop up, but this really is a departure from the expected. Each woman is as nuanced as a real person.”
Coughenour said the character-driven play looks at how women view themselves and their relationships to each other.
This hard look at how women interact in private and public moments should provide some food for thought, the director said.
“My hope is that audiences are able to really think about how they move through the world. And I hope that women and femmes particularly feel seen and represented in our wide range of characters.”