The Port Townsend Leader review. Published 1/31/00

Valerie wows, Brad moves
By Martha Worthley
Leader Arts Editor

A combination of good writing and delightful acting opens the evening at Bare Boards & Passion's current productions. "The Valerie of Now" stars 13-year-old Phina Pipia as a young girl on the crest of womanhood. Spirited, vulnerable and funny, Pipia carries her monologue through phone calls and fantasies, and her audience is with her every step of the way.

Valerie is home alone, awaiting the celebration of her 12th birthday, while her parents are at the bike store picking out a brand new Schwinn bicycle for her. Biology steps in at this moment to take Valerie from expectant party girl to young woman. Between anxious phone calls to reach her mother, a friend, and yet another friend -- and her thoughts spiraling from disaster to pride -- Pipia conveys that twilight hour when adolescents are at once girl/child/woman. It is a pleasure to watch her playing with the power she imagines her new status will bring, as well as examining the inevitable loss of childhood.

"Imagining Brad" starts with the irrepressible Dana Sue Kaye (played by Gale Wallis) smugly making a newcomer welcome to her church. The quiet young woman we come to know as Brad's wife (Michelle Hensel) can barely get a word in edgewise, while Dana Sue Kaye describes herself and makes all kinds of outrageous assumptions. As a blonde bombshell wearing bright red, Wallis rides roughshod over Brad's wife, all the while picturing herself as the sexy, cherished wife of the paragon Alex. The two women time their dialogue to the second.

When Brad's wife quietly gets a truthful word in edgewise, we begin to see a crack in Dana Sue Kaye's facade. By the time her story truly unravels, the discomfort in the audience is palpable. It happens in stages, much the way one imagines an ugly situation grows over time.

The play treats tough subject matter with humor and respect. Hensel's quiet and seemingly meek character reveals courage and steel that is a perfect foil for Wallis' Dana Sue, lost in a blustering swamp of denial.

Credit goes in both plays to the playwright Peter Hedges, who gives his characters dialogue to sink their teeth into and gives us three-dimensional characters. Bare Boards & Passion presents us with theater we can wrap our arms around.

And from unsolicited emails, received from audience members:
"I just wanted you to know that I felt (and I've heard the same from several other audience members attending on other nights) a deep, visceral pleasure in your acting achievement." --D.S.

"The acting was JUST MARVELOUS. Great characters, and they... came across strong and clear." --M.M.

"The Valerie of Now" and "Imagining Brad" continue Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 1-3 at 7:30 pm. The performance on Sunday, Feb. 4, is a matinee at 2:30 pm. All take place at Sightlines Theater, Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Tickets are available at Vasu Video, 1030 Lawrence St., or by reservation (385-0802, bareboards@waypt.com).