Fri 4/3 – Sat 4/18
When William Mastrosimone’s Extremities debuted off-Broadway in late 1982, audiences didn’t know what to make of this rape drama.
The plot involved a woman who, while in the process of being victimized, gains the upper hand against her accuser opening up a Pandora’s Box of possibilities, feelings and insecurities. Now Blank Canvas Theatre is revisiting the gripping drama with its own production running weekends Fri 4/3 through Sat 4/18 at the Cleveland venue.
CoolCleveland talked to the theater’s Artistic Director/Owner Patrick Ciamacco about the somewhat obscure drama, which was made into a 1986 feature film staring Farrah Fawcett. Interestingly, he said Mastrosimone actually spent an hour on a conference call enlightening the cast about the nuances of the drama.
CoolCleveland: First of all, tell us about the decision to produce Extremities.
Patrick Ciamacco: In my opinion, especially everything going on in the NFL, there are situations with a lot of rape and abuse that have been in the media lately. The NFL brought it to light with the Ray Rice situation. That’s been on the radar. This play is still kind of relevant today in terms of the situation.
What is it about the narrative that rings true today?
One of the characters is at home and a man walks in her house. He tries to rape her and she gets the upper hand and locks him in a fireplace. And it becomes a kind of take on the system – there’s no proof technically because he didn’t get to complete the act. She doesn’t know if he’s even going to be sentenced. So she starts taking things into her own hand and torturing him and deciding if she’s going to kill him. And then her roommates come home and it becomes this struggle of what to do now that she’s already locked him up and is kind of blinded and worried about being prosecuted instead of him.
How did Mastrosimone get involved?
He saw we were producing it and reached out. It was really cool. We had a nice hour-long conversation with him about the piece and why he wrote it. He said it was way different in the ‘80s. There was a lot more uproar. A lot of women didn’t understand what the show was about. They were protesting and thinking it was pro-rape in some way. They didn’t like the aspect that she tortured him.
What did the cast learn from the conversation with Mastrosimone?
One of the big questions they had was the dynamic of the girls that are in the play because they’re roommates. He alluded to the fact they’re living together as a means to pay rent. Also, he originally sat down to write the piece to take place in a courtroom and then he started writing and realized, “Oh, this takes place in an apartment.” That helps us to understand at certain times characters become a prosecutor, become a defense attorney throughout the process without realizing it.
Anything else of note come from the conversation with Mastrosimone?
When it was on Broadway he kept seeing this same man there with different women. Sometimes the woman would cry. Sometimes they’d scream or leave. After weeks of this he finally asked the man what was going on. It was actually a psychiatrist who was bringing his patients there that had been raped to watch the piece so they could find some catharsis from it.
Having not seen the play or movie, it appears as though Extremities taps into the idea of rape being a crime of violence juxtaposed with the fact that power corrupts no matter what the situation.
Correct. Yes, it’s like a cat and mouse game. The power struggle changes throughout the show. Raul, the only male character, is almost in a prison. They cage him in a fireplace. He’s almost on trial in the room but he even starts to get power as well. He’s been stalking these girls long enough and reading their mail, he knows enough about them he can start putting them against each other. Even though he’s caged in the fireplace, he’s able to turn these girls on each other at times.
What do you hope audiences take away after seeing Extremities?
It opens up that idea – that dialogue – that this still happens today.
Finally, how does this production fit into the Blank Canvas Theatre mission?
What I do at the theater is to do a very diverse season. I’m trying to bring in a non-typical theater audience but also facilitating people who already love theater. So I do classics like Of Mice and Men or One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I try to facilitate that with pop culture stuff like Jurassic Park: The Musical, which we’re doing this year. It’s told from the dinosaur point of view. That will be a Cleveland premiere. So, ultimately, I like to challenge our audiences in different ways.
Performances take place weekends April 3 through 18 at Blank Canvas Theatre, 1305 West 80th St., Suite 211, Cleveland. Call 440-941-0458 or visit blankcanvastheatre.com.
[Rehearsal shot pictured]
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. Cleveland, OH 44102