Andrew Snyder

Thea. 1340

Mr. Tomlanovich

Plays make demands. They require attention, affection and expression. While the title character may not have received this in Christopher Durang’s play, the piece itself has in this production. It explains Baby with the Bathwater through acting, scenery, script and costumes so well that I wrote this paper with ease.

Baby with the Bathwater is an amorphous play. By placing an overpowering inkblot above the stage the production team instantly and continuously reminds the audience of this. These smudges of ink are supplied with significance as the play progresses. By the end I was seeing two pairs of legs, a ballerina’s and a businessman’s, and a skull with butterfly wings stenciled lightly behind. That shows that the themes of gender confusion and nature versus nurture where understandable. Another example of personal perception comes through Aunty. She uses Ivan of The Brothers Kamirazov to prove that conscious doesn’t matter even though, in the book, Ivan ultimately dies of guilt. Given her personality it is convenient for her to ignore consequence. Events in Baby with the Bathwater must be navigated with care, because they change once out of sight.

Auntie’s miss-representation of The Brothers Kamirazov also illuminates the theme of irresponsibility. In Baby with the Bathwater the powerful are insane and the weak reasonable. Adroit costumes and makeup make half of these authorities look, and act, like the malevolent clowns of a childhood nightmare. The others speak, and look, like deflating balloons, because they are unable to make challenges. Clear instances of this occur at all times during the play, but most blatant is the principal-teacher conversation. Crudely sexual the overtly aroused principal ignores all needs but her own and the teacher is too sensibly stunned to offer response. Irresponsibility is also shown in the way the parents criticize the defenseless baby for waking them up and their constant mishandling of it. A subtle addition is the appearance of empty beer bottles after the intermission which conveys the feeling that there is drunken parenting occurring. Shouting and stamping the authorities create havoc with the senselessness of a natural disaster, but poor Daisy can’t do anything but hide in the debris of laundry.

Most of the acting in this performance of Baby with the Bathwater works at distraction. The players do a fine job of shouting in a way that suggests that they are trying to avoid a topic. They lead the audience to believe that a period of silence would resolve everything. This ambience is capitalized on during two parts specifically, the redressing that Daisy does and the sessions with the psychologist. In the former there is complete silence which allows the audience to, for the first time, have surroundings conducive to thinking. The interviews have this same quality although there is speech. Despite the conversation it seems more like an inner-monologue since there is only one person on stage. In this production of Baby with the Bathwater conflicts are loud and catharsis is soft.

Another central aspect is the play’s comi-tragedy perplexity. The acting has a hysterical sort of depression. Definitely funny the characters are simultaneously pathetic. This latent sadness is best shown in the scenes in which Daisy is changing clothing and personality as music and lights drench the environment with the held-back-blues. The scenery supplements the idiosyncrasies of the acting by being superficially average with a few twists. Towards the ceiling grime has collected as if it is safely hiding, darts are penetrating a picture of an aged couple, the right wall is angled, clothes lie in heaps and the bookshelves contain scholarly books and toys. The placement of literature alongside play-things personifies Christopher Durang’s style of cultured childishness that his characters also show by screaming Shakespeare quotes. It is all a very serious joke.

As a play of shaky laughter Baby and the Bathwater preaches topsy-turvy anguish. It is everyday life shifted a few degrees, where every thought, how ever ridiculous, is voiced. This production captures that feeling of domestic absurdity that Durang wrote about.

Baby with the Bathwater Critique

Have you ever seen the play Baby with the Bathwater? This particular production exemplifies in causing exuberant headaches, encourage abortion and provide a view of the world in a less positive light. Baby with the Bathwater at UNT was about as good as a high school drama queen.

Thirty seconds into this seemingly sweet and capturing play an ear splitting scream is released from the lips of actress Stephanie Schuurman. This action sets the stage for the next two and a half hours of ear splitting annoyance. Anyone who can sit through UNT’s production of Baby with the Bathwater without receiving a headache should receive some sort of medal that equates to that earned in an Olympic sport. Every other line in this play was spent yelling from one character to the other. The never ending argument was just an addition to the headache that is earned from such an over use of emotional trauma. More than the sheer volume of this play and infinite disagreement of characters is the ignorance presented by every character in the play. Ranging from the parents incapacity to rear a child with any sort of anything, seriously, to the child himself not having any concept of how the world works. In addition, the most ignorant thing seen is this play is the decision for Daisy to raise a son of his own. While he might have the ability to overcome the hardships thrown his way as a child, the chances of him raising a decent child are slim. Havoc and mayhem, how could a child create so much trouble?

Speaking of which, this child does cause entirely too much trouble. From the beginning all his presence provokes is havoc and pain. Daisy’s mother becomes belligerent and crazy, John, the father, becomes extremely passive and apathetic to the entire world. Daisy’s birth also brings people into Helen and John’s lives that do nothing but accost them. Characters like Nanny and Cynthia only come around as a consequence of the baby being born. After watching an arduous act like dealing with these people as a repercussion of a baby being born, let alone having to care for the baby, who would voluntarily bring a life into the world under their care? This play should be shown to high school students as a warning of the hardships that befall those who have children. Abortion rates would go through the roof if Baby with the Bathwater was shown on a large production level.

Out of all the possible scenarios that could have taken place in a play of this type UNT’s production of Baby with the Bathwater selected one of the worst. The entire play screams white trash. The father, John, becomes an alcoholic the day Daisy is born. He also cheats on his wife with Nanny on a whim, almost in front of the child. The mother, Helen, goes insane and pretends that her son is a daughter. Not only this, but neither Helen nor John can seem to understand any of the needs that their son might have as a human being or man. The families way of life, Daisy’s nymphomania, the principal’s interests in women tells the audience that this play is trying to point out all the flaws in our everyday lives.

What to do after getting the worst headache in years by watching this play? After being convinced that having a child is probably the worst mistake a man and a woman can make? After becoming seriously depressed concerning the world humans live in? Answer: Realize that UNT’s production of Baby with the Bathwater is the worst play since the third grade.

Critique of Baby with the Bathwater

Before a play starts and before an actor speaks the first word, the audience gets a feeling for a play by observing the set. The design of a set is what establishes the tone for a play. The set for Baby with the Bathwater conveyed chaos from the beginning.

The audience notices how the living room of the apartment was in a state of disarray. Scattered about the living room were piles of laundry. Hanging on the wall over the dining table were cracked plates. A picture on the back wall had darts thrown in it. At the bottom corner of a doorway, were handprints on the wall. All of these set items, plus empty liquor bottles on the bookshelf and other various minute details, tell the audience about the state of mind of the characters to come.

Another aspect of the set design foreshadowing the theme of disorder were the doorways themselves. The doorways were purposefully built at a slant, instead of the normal rectangle shape. This aided to the feeling that something was not quite right inside this home. And above all of the aforementioned, hung a huge inkblot. The inkblot is a tool used by psychiatrists to help see into a patient’s mind. From the very start, the audience knew the characters to come were going to have problems. The inkblot was a great addition to each scene. It provided the backdrop for every scene and never let the audience forget the theme of mental instability.

As the play progressed, the set did not change much. However, the production used the limited space well. The rotating set piece on stage left used for the principal’s office and the park was visually entertaining. Those two scenes did not have very much design to them, but that helped the audience not forget that the main action of the play, and the meat of the theme, were to take place in the living room of John and Helen. Those two scenes were to merely show passage of time and the mentality of parent to child.

The scenes involving Daisy’s psychiatric sessions had the least amount of design. A chair was placed downstage center and stage left held clothing changes. Again, this was a great use of a small space. It would not have been practical, or within budget probably, to have an entirely different set for the psychiatrist’s office. By only placing a chair downstage center, this allowed the audience to focus on the character of Daisy and what was happening to him mentally. This sparse design also allowed the audience to keep in view John and Helen’s living room. It was made very clear that Daisy’s identity crisis stemmed directly from growing up in that home with John and Helen.

Finally, at the end of the play, an image appears in the inkblot. Up until this point, each audience member sees something different in the inkblot. At the end though, a picture of a butterfly emerges. The set designer uses this image to show the progression of Daisy’s character. A butterfly universally signifies change and renewal and the audience observes this firsthand in Daisy. The play concludes on an upbeat. The inkblot greatly adds to the feeling of satisfaction and gives the audience closure. Daisy has a child of his own through circumstances of fate and chooses to be different than his parents when it comes to child rearing.

The set designer for Baby with the Bathwater did a great job. The set held little clues about what was to come and let the audience into the minds of the characters before an actor even stepped on stage. The set did not distract the audience from the ongoing action. Instead, it provided a backdrop that enhanced the character’s actions and gave them a forum to speak from.

Baby with the Bathwater Critique

After watching Christopher Durang’s Baby with the Bathwater directed by Belinda Solis, I decided the acting was the most entertaining part of the production and perhaps somewhat believable even though no equilibrium existed between the levels of seriousness and humor. Since the actors’ main purposes for acting is to master physical and vocal skills and to make their characters believable, I took these things into consideration while watching this performance.

The most convincing actor in this production of Baby with the Bathwater was Robert Linder who played Daisy and next was Stephanie Schuurman who played Helen. Because Daisy is the victim of bad parenting and gender identity, he is faced with the most internal emotional confusion. It is not until the fourth scene in the second act that we see Daisy’s true emotional disturbance. Robert conveys anger, frustration, and confusion through his facial expressions, the tone in his voice, and his body language. His face was distraught throughout his scenes with the shrink and seemed as though he could almost shed a tear. His voice almost cracked. He used his hands when expressing his anger and frustration. All of his movements were natural which is important to being a convincing actor.

Stephanie Schuurman who played Daisy’s mother, Helen, was the second most convincing actor of this production. Her best quality was her vocal performance. She had a clear, distinct voice; however it lacked the emotional touch that appeals to an audience. For instance, in the first act, her husband John cheats on her with the Nanny. Helen is supposed to be angry and threatens to leave him, but I did not feel the same anger sitting in the audience. Your husband cheated on you with the woman you invited into your home. You could hear disappointment in her voice but not anger. The only physical anger she demonstrated was attempting to attack the Nanny while John repeatedly held her back. Her big movements were more natural than her voice, however. The only thing Stephanie is credible for is insanity. Her shouting at the baby convinces the audience something is most definitely wrong from the opening scene. She does well playing the oblivion of her son’s mental stability; however she does not convey enough emotion. Perhaps the whole gist of the play is lack of emotion.

The most unnatural acting can be credited to the Nanny played by Amanda Fallin. Her movements were big and animated which did not fit in with the rest of the play. It was almost as if there was not enough room for her on stage because her movements were everywhere. However, the way that she walked, flailed her arms about, and all of her jumping around from place to place did make her the comic relief of this production. When she is convincing John to go to bed with her, she is tip-toeing around and it is so animated as if it came straight from Nickelodeon. Also when she is on the bed luring him to come to her, her arms and legs are flailing about which can be seductive in no way.

As stated in the Director’s Notes on Chris Durang, laughter is used to deal with societal issues; however, his weak attempt at this in Baby with the Bathwater only shines through the Nanny. This play needed to take one extreme or the next, but it fell in between being way over the top and serious. So while the issues were real and serious, there was no real equilibrium in the acting.

Baby with the Bathwater

“Acting is not that far from mental disease: An actor works on splitting his character into others. It is like a kind of schizophrenia.” Vittorio Gassman explains in a very effective statement the importance and the magic that is acting. I have learned acting in itself holds many definitions and many responsibilities. The key is impersonation; to let go of yourself and the real world and focus on making the story believable. Acting is very miraculous and time-consuming. It happens when you forget that you are watching an actor, when you see it come to life. In the play that I viewed this past Sunday, “Baby with the Bathwater,” I experienced many forms and approaches to acting, good and bad. Let’s just go down the list with criticisms. But first, we must note that I do not claim myself as an actress, or an actor expert or any of the sort (unfortunately) but I do know good acting when I see it, I believe I have witnessed enough movies and theater to know the difference between good acting and “High school acting.” Most of the characters in this play could be described as being clinically insane. We start down the Cast List with the role of the alarmingly oblivious and exceptionally lustful Principal; Miss Willoughby. The graduating senior in the B.F.A. musical program performed this role to its fullest. Completely re-creating the character of Miss Willoughby and enhancing it with her own take on humor. She delighted the audience from what I witnessed with her eccentric and undiscerning remarks towards the concerned teacher, Miss Pringle. Her lust for her secretary was apparent through her dire need to have contact with him, despite the one way intercom of which she solely depended on. Amanda Jane Adams did amazingly well in this role. Next is the Nanny. Amanda Falin completes this really ridiculous role as the insane and disturbing Nanny. She is full of abrupt changes of mood, first cooing at the baby and then screaming at it. This is almost the top role in this play that really annoyed me (If not the whole play itself). The character was so amazingly, and almost inhumanely annoying and just, plain unbearable. Amanda really played this role well, within seconds of seeing her she made me want to run at her with a two by four and beat her unconscious. If anything, her acting was effective. Next on the list is the role of John, the well-meaning father who allows his wife and everyone else to steamroll right over him. John sometimes has moments of clarity when he knows what has to be done for the well-being of his child or his marriage, but then he's distracted by something and the thought is lost. At first, the actor playing John really annoyed me, his voice was so monotonous and his actions looked as if they weren’t well rehearsed or they felt unnatural to him. I didn’t think he was going to be so good during the entire show. Then, as the play was coming to an end (gladly) he started showing signs of a believable actor as he conveys the slow deterioration of John’s mind. It seems, the less that actor spoke and the less that actor had to actually act, the better. Next up, Helen. Now, this character really just irked me. I don’t take too well to characters as such. Something so pathetic and just, not even humanly possible. Her 20+years of post-partum depression beautifully mixed with a pile of total insanity made her to be one of the annoying characters in this play. The actress, Stephanie Schurman was remarkable at it. Shurmanis at her most convincing with the comedy in Helen's insanity - when she snips, "It's a very grouchy baby; we're not very happy with it," Shurman nicely captures Helen's comic misunderstanding of the parent/child relationship. She's less effective when Helen goes on a raving tirade - perhaps because it's hard to know whether to play it for laughs or tears. I thought she was the best in this play. However, the one that really made me want to stand up and scream in the theater was the son/daughter: Daisy. Robert Linder, the unconvincing freshman theater major unfortunately presenting himself in this role, did not increase my liking for this play or lead me to carry sympathy for him. He, too, held the truly unfortunate gift of having a voice with absolutely no feeling and totally monotonous as well as Jeremy Lawrence (John). Every time his mouth opened for his lines and his voice sprang through the small, delicate theater, I felt nothing. I expected more of a depressive, deep character truly expressing the tales of why he is truly messed up. However, in some moments when dry humor is needed, his lifeless voice gives the lines justice. These are the characters that I thought deserved some criticism. Even though this play did absolutely nothing for me, I still enjoyed judging the characters and their actors.

Baby with the Bath Water is a production that addresses the social and psychological situation of a pitifully confused and utterly bizarre family. The story and message was performed fabulously by actors and crew, aided tremendously by the set design, which certainly helped set the mood.

The first thing noticed about the set is that it was quite realistic. It was not merely a plain-colored backdrop, but actual walls with texture and painting techniques. The detail even went so far to including faded areas behind the wall décor. The small seating area and proximity to the stage made the audience feel as if they were actually on the set. The doorway and nook that lead to the rest of the house gave the set a certain depth that made the audience feel as thought they were actually watching events occurring within a household instead of people acting out events on a stage.

The set was certainly helter-skelter. Piles of laundry were jumbled around the stage with several random toys, a mop leaning against the wall and mass amounts of clutter. It gave the play a feel of general chaos, where a tidier, more organized set would not have. The crooked door and unleveled coat rack seemed to portray the skewed dysfunctionalism that so deeply afflicted most of the characters. The bra hanging in the corner hinted of the play’s, sometimes subtle, crudeness. The lines were most certainly angular, from the jagged corners of the door, to the shift in wall depth, to the shape of the dinning room chairs. Though if fit together well, the stage did not necessarily flow together smoothly, just as the play. One moment the Dingleberrys were smitten in love and brimming with pride only found in new parents, and the next they were demanding divorce, screaming, yelling, crying, creating total hysteria. It was so much that a viewer certainly might have felt a bit disjointed, incredulous at the idiocy in front of them and eventually groaning every time the screaming began again, however it served to advance the plot marvelously.

One of the most symbolic and tell-tale features of the set, and even the play as a whole, was color. The set consisted of primarily yellows and browns: very mellow, warm colors. The use of these colors accomplished two things. It made the set fit in with the time period. The brown couch, yellow walls, yellow chairs, dull table cloth and homey wall decorations absolutely screamed “’70s.” All it was lacking was a brown shag carpet.

The second thing the color choice accomplished is that it spoke of the cruel reality of the situation. As the play progressed and Daisy grew up the set seemed old and dingy. It was stuck in the ‘70s, just as Helen and John were, ignoring the flow of time and the social constructs that made Daisy’s life, quite honestly, pure hell. By the end they seemed completely oblivious to the world. The colors were dull and lacked vibrancy. In truth, they were one thing: ugly. Ugly as the adults’ twisted perspective, ugly as Daisy’s life and outlook, ugly as the circumstances that befell the characters.

However, suiting for a play with a redeemed character, a lovely color must be necessary to balance the ugly. While Daisy is changing before his last counseling session he is bathed in purple life, where before it was blue light that washed over him. Consequently enough, instead of walking out in purple clothing he donned a blue shirt. Susan, the first stable influence in his life, wore a purple shirt. As far as the set is concerned, the mural above the house was shrouded in purple lighting. When the light is taken off at the end, an image of a butterfly is clear. With the pressures and memories of his life removed, Daisy was finally able to bloom.

Without such a descriptive and cleverly designed set Baby with the Bath Water would not have carried across such a potent message. It addressed the situation, circumstances, characters and themes perfectly contributing the play’s success.

Critique: Baby with the Bathwater

Although the play Baby with the Bathwater presented a disturbing storyline that discusses the consequences of bad parenting, its theatrical elements and sincere acting cause the audience to leave their seats with a heart full of emotions.

The storyline of this play was not particularly delightful. It was quite disturbing to view the two parents, John and Helen, raise their child without actually knowing its sex until it is quite grown. I also did not enjoy watching how they physically handled the baby. They threw it down on the table, screamed at it, and gave it sleeping medication. Even though it is just a play, it is frightening to watch an actor pretending to psychologically ruin a child. It forces the audience to think about whether or not people might actually do those kinds of things to their children, and I am definitely sure that some do.

However, even though the storyline is disturbing, I believe that this type of play is made in order to shock people. Its whole purpose is to make people think about the responsibilities of parenthood and what could happen if a child is not properly taken care of. Thus, if the audience leaves the theater thinking about how frightening it would be if people actually acted the way John and Helen did, then the storyline served its purpose.

There were several other elements that I believe contributed to this play in a positive way. First off, I thought the acting was rather impressive. Every actor spoke in a clear and loud voice. Their expressions demonstrated their feelings and allowed the audience to sympathize with their characters. For example, the young woman who portrayed Helen did an excellent job convincing the audience that she was both harsh and loving towards her son. She used large amounts of energy to express her emotions and really made the audience feel like they wanted to hate her and feel sorry for her all at the same time.

Another example of effective acting was portrayed by the man who played Daisy. When he first walked out onto the stage in his pink dress, I immediately felt so incredibly sorry for him. His monologue was expressed in such a somber tone. His light, timid voice and slow movements made the audience realize how effected the character was by his parents lack of responsibility.

Not only was the acting passionate, but the set and costume designs also played an important role in bringing the story to life. The two-dimensional set really made the apartment look more realistic. The plaid couch and flowery table cloth were perfectly relevant to the nineteen seventies and eighties time setting. And because the stage was extremely close to the audience itself, people were able to feel as if they were actually observing the play from inside the apartment rather than in a theater.

The costumes were also very accurate in relation to the time periods observed throughout the play. The first act took place during the nineteen seventies. Ruffles, flared jeans, and bright colors were worn to correctly depict this period of peace and love. During the second act, shoulder pads, polka-dots, headbands, and large sweatshirts were worn to portray the nineteen eighties. Overall, I was able to detect a sense of time evolution through the changes in costume apparel. I also noted that the colors of each character’s costume reflected their personality. For example, John was rather calm and nonchalant. This was portrayed through dark and dull clothing. Helen’s personality was loud, energetic, high-strung. Her costumes consisted of bright reds, oranges, and greens.

All in all, I definitely believe Baby with the Bathwater was a good play. Although the storyline was often disturbing, it left the audience in an emotional state and caused them to think about what it means to be responsible for another human being. Its effective acting and use of detailed sets and costumes made the entire production come to life.