As artists and viewers of art, what is our real and honest purpose? Is it to simply admire, or to think more critically? Is one reserved just for the viewer? One just for the artist? “Body Awareness” by Anne Baker begs these questions among others.
The play follows a family; Joyce, her partner Phyllis, and her son Jared, as they welcome a photographer into their home during body awareness week at the college where Phyllis teaches. This photographer, Frank, captures nude images of women of all ages who have volunteered to pose for him. While Joyce believes the images are beautiful, and while Frank claims they’re empowering, there’s a certain level of exploitation in them that Phyllis latches onto. After all, art is entirely subjective in what it means to us, but the intent of the artist should also be remembered when examining something critically.
Over the course of the week, we watch as Phyllis and Joyce’s relationship is tested over this disagreement and as Joyce’s son Jared, who they’re convinced has Asperger’s, grows increasingly irritable about his mother’s wish for him to attend college and his lack of a girlfriend. All the while, Frank himself seems friendly and not sleazy in the slightest, but his art, like the art of so many others, tells us all we need to know.
This is a layered and immensely realistic show that exhibits a beautiful glimpse at the mundane. Entirely to the credit of the ensemble and the production team, this is brought excitingly to life. Laura Carden as Joyce is sweet and smart, playing the loving mother with sly humor and the art enthusiast with wonder. Braeden Hatfield as Jared is purely astounding, balancing the character’s fits of anger and compulsion with a calm rational. Jason Lambert is downright charming as Frank, a photographer who exhibits an alarming lack of awareness for the quiet sensibility he’s disrupting around him. Sarah Sandback as Phyllis is sharp and cutting, the voice of ever-present reason, however outwardly influenced it may be. Together, these four deliver an emotionally diverse and beautiful show.
One of the greater enjoyments of Firelight Theatre Workshop, besides the fantastic company, is the intimacy of their productions. The audience sits right in the thick of the action as events unfold, all heavily engaged in seeing and hearing Baker’s invigorating deliberate silences and intentional moments of stillness. This play asks you to listen closely, it implores you to consider the values of beauty, art, feminism, and even morality in a way that is savory to consume.
“Body Awareness” is a simple play that carries with it an intricate web of questions. What is art and what is merely exploitation? What determines the value of art? Why do we appreciate simple things? What is beauty to us? All in all, the culmination is such: The human body is the finest work of art there is and we should cherish it thusly. We are not marble, as Michelangelo’s David, but we are no less remarkable. While the intent of Frank’s photographs is unclear at times, Baker’s is ever present in that we should appreciate every facet of ourselves, even those we aren’t entirely ready to admit are there.
Directed by Nora Fiffer, “Body Awareness” by Anne Baker opened last week and is playing to April 20 at the Guernsey Building, 70 Main Street, Suite 204 Peterborough.
For more information and to purchase tickets visit firelighttheatreworkshop.com.
Cheyenne Heinselm an is an actress and a playwright, a member of the International Thespian Society Troupe #7883, as well as an avid and opinionated supporter of the arts.