Renaissance Theaterworks Finds Humor, Emotion in 'Gorgons'

On the surface, Don Nigro's Gorgons is an enjoyable dark comedy. Renaissance Theaterworks opens its season with a production that does a really good job of delivering that surface-level humor, and then mining deeper for true emotion.

Jennifer Rupp plays Ruth, an aging screen actress who is working on an emotionally taxing film with rival Mildred (played by Marcella Kearns), also an aging screen actress. Nigro unleashes a relentless barrage of witty verbal jabs between the two actresses. Though there are a few weak moments, the timing of Kearns and Rupp makes the countless insults and epithets feel relatively fresh throughout the performance.

With such a narrow focus on characters that are constantly at each other's necks, Gorgons can feel repetitive. But Kearns and Rupp are so good at drawing the audience into the emotional foundation of the characters' conflict that the repetition feels like a minor detail in an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable comedy.

It helps when Nigro provides some depth beyond the surface aggression between the two actresses. It's in this depth of emotions that Kearns and Rupp are really able to make the show come to life. As Mildred, Kearns winningly portrays a vulnerable character, someone who prefers to act onstage. Rupp is compelling and slick as Ruth, someone who prefers to act off-screen. Ruth's desire to act in “real life,” for her own benefit, is seriously at odds with Mildred's desire to reach for the passion of transcendent energy at the center of art. Ruth and Mildred are allegorical of a fundamental dichotomy between art and commerce, which Rupp and Kearns bring to the stage in intricate details throughout the play.

Renaissance Theaterworks' production of Gorgons runs through Nov. 6 at the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre. For ticket reservations, call 414-291-7800.