Stage Review - Ripcord (As If Theatre)
Stage Review - Ripcord
Presented By: As If Theatre - Kenmore, WA
Show Run: March 20 - April 06, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, March 22, 2025 (Opening Weekend)
Run Time: 2 Hours (including a 15 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
If I think about the shows that I’ve seen over the past few years since I’ve started covering As If Theatre in Kenmore, there are certain characteristics that jump out at me, certain themes that are threaded through their shows, whether it’s The Foreigner, Suite Surrender, Cry It Out, Colder Than Here, or even The 39 Steps. Each of these shows have a good deal of humor, but they also have heart, and moreover they touch at both an intellectual and an emotional part of our humanity that make them extremely important pieces of performance art. Their latest on stage production, David Lindsay-Abaire’s Ripcord, fits right in with those other titles. The story of two retirement home roommates who get along like oil and water, yet somehow can’t seem to get away from each other no matter how hard at least one of them tries, runs on stage in Kenmore through April 6 in a production directed by Chris Shea.
Ripcord is primarily set in the sunny upper level retirement home room of long time resident Abby, a crotchety woman who prefers a solitary existence, and her new roommate Marilyn, who, well isn’t and doesn’t. Marilyn, always positive, is outgoing, and always has something to say, much to Abby’s chagrin. It seems there’s nothing that can make her angry, and as Marilyn learns, it doesn’t appear that there’s anything that can make Abby scared, which leads to the overarching plot of the play. Abby wants Marilyn out. She has successfully run every previous roommate out, though it’s not clear whose choice it was for them to leave, and wants Marilyn to be the next one to follow suit. With a bed having just opened up on the first floor, it seems like the perfect opportunity, but Abby has gotten more than she bargained for with her new roomie. Marilyn won’t leave, in fact she doesn’t just want to stay, she wants Abby’s bed on the sunny side of the room, as committed to moving to that side of the room as Abby is to kicking Marilyn out. Cue Marilyn’s one weakness, gambling, more precisely betting, most of her wagers are low stakes, perhaps until now. After they reach an impasse, Abby won’t give up her bed, and of course Marilyn won’t leave, the pair agree to place a bet. If Abby can figure out how to make her roommate angry, Marilyn will leave and take the newly vacated bed on the first floor. At the same time, if something happens that truly scares Abby, Marilyn not only stays, but gets the bed on the sunny side of the room.
The bet starts harmlessly enough, each of the women playing pranks on the other to get the desired reaction, and each situation is funnier than the last. And with Mary Machala as the crotchety and belligerent Abby and Susan Finque as the peppy and positive Marilyn, the audience is treated to a pair that play off each other extremely well. Especially in scenes where Abby is clearly terrified, watching Mary steel herself to convince Marilyn otherwise, or Susan taking a deep breath before reacting to something that should clearly make her angry, each are so entertaining. What’s refreshing in the way that Lindsay-Abaire has written Ripcord, though, is that he doesn’t deploy the same joke over and over again. The temptation could be to just have this run its comedic course, have someone win the bet, and move on, but that would do nothing to impress upon the audience that these are two humans with life situations that have led them to become the women that they are. It’s when the ladies are unsuccessful in their early attempts that their bet begins to take a turn, and the play along with it. Abby and Marilyn both start to cross some lines with what they’re willing to do in order to win the bet, involving their families, dredging up their pasts, and otherwise pulling out all the stops. When Abby and Marilyn are forced to deal with what the other has done, it’s also when Mary and Susan are at their best, these are two talented actors that pull deeply from their respective emotional wells to provide performances that present their outside personas, the grumpy or positive older women, respectively, each belying a much more complicated humanity underneath, consisting of a combination of anger, sadness, and resolution, each set aside to protect themselves from their own emotions.
Caught in the middle is BJ Smythe, in such an entertaining role as Scotty, an employee at Bristol Place, the name of the Senior Living Facility, the retirement home where Abby and Marilyn live. Scotty tries to be a friend to all, the deliverer of medication, and also advice, ultimately with the hope of having the two ladies get along. BJ has a knack for playing characters in a way that are folksy like Scotty is here, he’s extremely likable, friendly as long as he can be, until he’s reached his limit, and then he’s as serious as the day is long. BJ’s performance here is quite good, his character is kept largely in the dark in the wager, but Scotty is also an aspiring actor, and a highlight is in this aspect of his role. Early on, Scotty invites the pair to a haunted house, in which he and his acting group are performing. The scene transforms Chandria Danelle’s set, which is a thoroughly accurate representation of a retirement home room, to a haunted house that, along with Gwyn Scone’s lighting and William French’s sounds, is something that should scare Abby, it surely does Marilyn. It’s a laugh out loud funny scene, though it’s very well designed. The comedy comes from the bumbling acting from Scotty’s troupe, consisting of him and the other members of the supporting cast, Ashlie Blaske, Brian Pucheu, and and Christopher Martinez. Christopher plays what is supposed to be the scary clown who is the house’s tour guide, Brian is a zombie butler who keeps losing his hand, and Ashlie is a woman who feels that her baby is in danger and looking at the house’s visitors to rescue it, in this case throwing it to Abby. It’s here that, among the laughter and bumbling of this group, that we first see that there’s something more to Mary’s Abby, as she holds the woman’s child, seemingly lost in thought. This haunted house is just one of the funny situations in which the roommates find themselves as part of this ongoing bet, the other also involving the supporting cast, but this time as Marilyn’s family, who just happen to own a skydiving company. What’s impressive about the skydiving scene, whether it scares Abby or not, is how creatively Chris and his team, which is rounded out by Amy Hockman’s work as costume designer, stage it. On those costumes, I do like Amy’s work here, which doesn’t surprise me. The obvious costumes that stand out are the haunted house pieces, they work because they look scary, and the seriousness of them adds to the humor of how the actors pull off the scene. There’s also the outfits from the skydiving piece, but what I like most are what each of the characters wear casually. Aside from Scotty’s scrubs, each outfit speaks to the characters’ personalities, from the athletic themed clothing that Marilyn wears, to Abby’s more conservative scarf and sweater look, Colleen’s punk rock contrasted with her husband’s buttoned up style, and Abby’s son Benjamin’s combination that speaks to his blue collar life.
Comedy aside, it’s in the second act of the play, when it takes that more serious turn, that the acting from the supporting cast rises to a different level as well. Both Ashlie and Brian, as Marilyn’s daughter Colleen and her husband Derek, are extremely good, Ashlie’s Colleen as competitive as her mother and Derek hilarious as the reluctant participant. But it’s Christoper who stands out as Abby’s son Benjamin, and in what is the most heartfelt, and heart wrenching, scene in the play, when mother and son are forced to come to terms with their relationship. There’s so much love in his character, but at the same time regret and remorse. This is such an important scene in the underlying story arc of the play, and the work that Mary and Christopher do in the delivery of this scene is core to what makes it so good. The play needs both the humor and the emotion to work, and in delivering both so well, Ripcord is more than just a comedy, and it’s more than just a drama, it’s a remarkable play that is exactly the kind of work that I’ve come to expect from As If Theatre.
David Lindsay-Abaire has made a name for himself through plays and musicals like Kimberly Akimbo, Shrek: The Musical, and High Fidelity. His shows have spent a fair amount of time both on and off Broadway, but it’s his play Ripcord, which is currently running on stage in Kenmore and being produced by As If Theatre. The play, about adversarial roommates in a retirement home who make a bet that starts out simply enough, but soon gets personal and crosses a number of lines, fits well into As If’s vision and catalogue of shows. Directed by Chris Shea, it’s intimately presented, superbly acted, well designed, and filled with the right balance of humor and emotion to make both work in a very human story, the kind of story that will make a lasting impression with audiences, a highly recommended play.
The As If Theatre Company production of Ripcord runs on stage at the Kenmore Community Center in Kenmore through April 6. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://asiftheatre.com.
Photo credit: Christine Mitchell
