“Escaped Alone” at Yale Repertory Theatre by Zander Opper

“Escaped Alone”

Yale Repertory Theatre

Yale Repertory Theatre is currently presenting an agreeable production of Caryl Churchill’s play, “Escaped Alone,” which is an extremely brief and mostly inconsequential evening of theater.  Clocking in at less than an hour, this show mostly makes one wish for more.  This is not to say that the play is hard to sit through: indeed, the production is attractive, with four fine actresses in the cast.  The problem is that just as one thinks “Escaped Alone” will deepen and let the audience know more about the characters, it abruptly ends.  During the show, each of the actresses gets a monologue that reveals the interior life of each woman and director Liz Diamond does what she can to bring out some enthusiasm in the play, but the show goes nowhere.  “Escaped Alone” is something like going to a fancy restaurant, getting a nice appetizer, and then waiting in vain for the main course, which never comes.

On Lia Tubiana’s sunny and appealing set, “Escaped Alone” presents four women seated in lawn chairs in a garden.  The chatter between the four of them is pleasant and there are definitely some laughs in the show.  It also helps that the actresses playing these parts are skilled and can make the most out of every moment.  As Vi, Mary Lou Rosato is quite good and her big moment is her talking about her anxiety about going in her kitchen due to something gruesome which happened there years ago.  Sandra Shipley, as Sally, gets a great deal of laughter when she talks about her obsessive phobia of cats (at the performance I attended, she got applause after her monologue).

Also in the cast is Rita Wolf, as Lena, who certainly has anxieties of her own and this actress brings out the tenderness in her character.  As the fourth woman, the boisterous LaTonya Borsay is a welcome personality onstage as Mrs. Jarrett.  That said, the play saddles her with a series of jarring and disturbing speeches, which this actress delivers in a spotlight, as the stage abruptly turns dark around her.  The content of these speeches is mostly about destruction, famine, disease, and even cannibalism.  What these moments have to do with the rest of the show is a mystery.  And, although the program of the show devotes two pages to specific plants and gardens, neither of these topics is explored in any length.  The excellent costume designer, Yu-Jung Shen, actually brings more variety to the characters, based on the clothing they wear, than the playwright does.  It can also be said that Stephen Strawbridge’s lighting design is extremely expressive and the projection design by Shawn Lovell-Boyle is pretty awesome.

But, no matter the acting quality and the beauty of the design elements in the show, “Escaped Alone” just leaves one hanging.  It is telling that the biggest highlight in the show is a raucous, a capella rendition of the song “Hit the Road Jack,” which all four actresses turn into a show stopper.  But only so much can be done in a play this brief, despite the efforts of the director and her game cast of performers.  “Escaped Alone” is disappointing because what is presented in the show is potentially fascinating and is entertaining as far as it goes and another hour added to the play would certainly have helped.  However, it must be admitted that “Escaped Alone” at Yale Repertory Theatre, while being easy to sit through, unfortunately amounts to much about not very much at all.

“Escaped Alone” runs through March 30, 2024, at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven CT. For tickets and information, please call 203-432-1234 or visit yalerep.org.  

Photo: (L-R): Mary Lou Rosato, Sandra Shipley, Rita Wolf, and LaTonya Borsay

Photo by Joan Marcus