Annie Baker's "Body Awareness' at the Wilma (2nd review)

Mimi Lien's set for Body Awareness permits us to observe the public, domestic and private lives of a family. The snow falling in the background through the windows suggests a cocoon insulated from all foreign forces. It's an effective allusion for Annie Baker's tenderhearted and enjoyable comedy.

It's the first day of Body Awareness Week at Shirley State College, a progressive school burrowed in the snowy hills of Vermont. This exercise in political correctness, designed to create an understanding of eating disorders while celebrating a dance troupe of refugee Palestinian children, is the brainchild of Phyllis, a psychology professor presented as a self-appointed feminist thought policewoman by Grace Gonglewski.

While Phyllis has it all figured out in the public arena, her home life is falling apart. And it's about to get worse.

Unlikely trio

Phyllis is a typical 40-something feminist whose comfortable non- conformist family is under stress due to the increasingly destructive presence of Jared (Dustin Ingram), the developmentally challenged 21-year-old son of her lesbian partner, Joyce (Mary Martello). As an academic psychologist, Phyllis is convinced Jared has Asperger's syndrome and wants him to seek help. As a troubled aggressive young man, Jared fights her suggestion. As his mother, Joyce— a high school teacher and pampering mother— is torn by parental love, committed fidelity and loss of sanity.

To this seething caldron is added a 21st-Century Puck named Frank, (Christopher Coucill), as a house guest, and the water starts to boil. Frank has been invited to be the Shirley State's visiting artist for Body Awareness Week. His principal contribution to the theme of the program is his ability to induce pubescent girls and old ladies to pose naked for his photographs.

In effect, Phyllis's promotion of her politically correct agenda has unwittingly delivered this leech into the college art gallery as well as her spare bedroom.

Sex education

Jared is convinced that if he has sex with a woman, Phyllis will see he is normal. Joyce, fraught with anxiety, needs to have her life vindicated. Both seek out Frank as an answer to their needs. Frank gives Jared advice on how to pick up girls (one of the funniest sex lessons I've ever seen), and Joyce agrees to strip for Frank's camera. Phyllis, meanwhile, acing the disintegration of her once happy home, puts on a brave face for the remaining days of her week of seminars.

Baker has a keen sense for comedic timing. After we adjust and understand each character, we look forward to hearing the zingers at the end of their sentences.

Anne Kauffman's laid-back directorial approach allows for the characters to develop as individuals and as a unit. The daily routines of bedtime and awakening flow effortlessly as the days of Body Awareness Week unfold, giving the audience a glimpse of the harmony that a steadfast relationship can offer. Amid the absurdity and hilarity, the arguments and reconciliations, you find yourself wanting this family to go on.

Frank's seemingly corrosive presence ultimately becomes a catalyst for a spiritual catharsis with his hosts. Because of the trauma he invokes, this holy trinity evolves from a secular to a spiritual seeking in which each wants to do the right thing toward the others. Body Awareness Week may have ended inconclusively on campus, but this household's bonding has just begun.♦


To read another review by Robert Zaller, click here.
To read another review by Dan Rottenberg, click here.