Maya Roth’s Big Love is a lot to love

Big Love just isn’t big enough to conquer all the staples of a social drama—free will, “love thy neighbor” and unrelenting feminism are just a few issues tackled in this revival of an ancient classic. Nevertheless, the performances are captivating, and the script is tinged with enough humor and cynicism to redeem the occasional dragging monologue.
The play, showing at Gonda Theater, is a modern adaptation of Aeschylus’s The Suppliants, and the performance kicks the original dramatic plot up a notch with a few contemporary innovations. On their wedding day, seven Greek sisters flee to Italy to avoid arranged marriages to their American cousins. Seeking refuge in a wealthy Italian home, they find that hospitality is not readily extended. With no real sanctuary from their persistent grooms—who, in appropriate American fashion, chopper in and swarm the place—the brides are forced to take justice into their own hands. Faced with no other option but marriage, they make a pact to kill their husbands on their wedding night.
The first half of the play moves at a comfortable pace and engages the audience in the performance. Among the more memorable scenes is the entrance of the American grooms. The brides on stage fade into blinding white light and the loud rumbling of a helicopter sounds from above as the men drop in between audience members.
The entrance of ancient plot into contemporary society provides an interesting twist, but is not without flaw. The ancient Greek chorus is replaced by lively, energetic bursts of acapella, singing to classics like Leslie Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me.” But the cast takes their performance beyond the typical finger-snapping routine. They writhe and wriggle on the floor, doing pushups and throwing themselves against walls; it’s a dynamic way to get the beat going, if at times disjointed and chaotic. The adopted tunes, like Ella Fitzgerald’s “Bewitched,” lack the strength and energy of the play’s more animated renditions. Nevertheless, the absence of background music through most of the play adds a comfortable, homey feel that couples nicely with the warm, rustic Italian scenery.
Even though lengthy monologues occasionally drag, the acting is, on the whole, superb. The standout of the show is undoubtedly Sarah Sexton (COL ’07), who plays Lydia, the lead and most rational sister of the bunch. Her performance is graceful and charismatic; her sultry demeanor and dramatic eyes would make her the perfect leading lady in a classic Bogart film. Adding humor into the mix is the feisty, feminist sister Thyona, played by Obehi Utubor (SFS ’09). Though the script demands her excessive rage on the inferiority of the male species—at one point she refers to them as “a biological accident”—she keeps up with her spunky energy. And then there’s the lovable Nikos, played by Ross Keller (COL ’09), who performs the role of Lydia’s groom with just the right mix of endearment and passion.
Despite the high quality of acting, the second half of the play loses much of the momentum of the beginning. The wedding party is disjointed from the start—though appropriate for the circumstances of mass murder, the loose, spontaneous dance numbers fail to heighten the scene’s bloody end. The uplifting finale reinforces a message that was obvious from the start, and could stand a little trimming down. But even if the play (an hour and a half without intermission) gets carried away at times, the audience can at least sit back and soak in all that faux Italian sunshine.