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Theater Review:
Bald Alice's gospel weird but engaging
by Graydon Royce
Wednesday, February 14, 2001
Peal has constructed a radical reimagining of the Judeo-Christian underpinnings that dominate Western culture, mixing in elements of Greek, Oriental and Nordic myths to fashion a feminine argument for a closer relationship with Mother Earth. It's loopy, unnecessarily confusing, too long and self-indulgent, but in the final analysis is an entertaining piece of theater.
Check your beliefs at the door and accept these suppositions. A seminary student on a pilgrimage through northern Spain comes upon a feverish young woman who babbles in English about the strange gospel of Mary Magdalene. The student writes down the utterances, which are considered a message from God:
Mary is the widow of Jesus. St. Peter is tortured by his denial of Jesus during his Passion and compensates with harsh thuggery during the early years of the movement. Mary flees this bully for a fantastic journey in which she encounters three goddesses who educate her in a parallel feminine mythology of the world's creation and human development. Their goal is to find the Garden of Eden and undo the male sky god's curse on humanity, restoring the nurturing mother. Peter endeavors to thwart the expedition, becoming more a symbol of medieval Christianity and the Crusades than himself. This raises the stakes, as the piece becomes not only a mythic alternative gospel, but also a polemic against Christian history.
Obviously well-read in mythology, Peal can't resist the temptation to load his work with the kind of breezy information and intoxicating logic you'd come across during a cocktail-party conversation. For example, he suggests that Mary and Jesus came from parallel lineages stretching back to Adam and Lilith and that these lines cross every 14 generations. And that's why Mary alone has the authority to undo the Eden curse. Oh, that's why.
Bald Alice's talented cast fills the small theater at the Cedar Riverside People's Center with lots of movement, fights, action and good performances. Should Peal ever establish that cult, he'd want Zach Curtis as an enforcer, based on his bad-boy performance as St. Peter. Curtis stays right within the pathology of a character vexed by guilt, cunning and a thirst for power. Laura Depta gives Mary a stout constitution, leavened by a sensitive love for her departed Lord. Carolyn Pool portrays the fevered oracle with an addled, charming capacity. Ellen Apel, Karen Wiese Thompson and Edwin Strout all fill in with sensitive, appealing characterizations.