Since the audience is clearly meant to take her seriously, it seems counterproductive to portray the messenger figure as a New Age hippie, a stereotype even liberal tree-huggers tend to mock. Is this an ironic undercutting of the fable's hitherto sincere message, or an unintentional lack of artistic imagination? The character is thought-provoking but ultimately unclear in intent and frustrating.
The same might be said of many features of The Bathtub. The set is structured like a modern art gallery, and the audience has to walk through it to reach the stage. While some of the art objects are used to satirical effect--Senator Hum poses under Jasper Johns' "Three Flags" for a patriotic-looking photo--others seem intriguing but extraneous. There seems to be little function for a polyurethane foam "Iava" trail that leads from the audience to the side wall of the stage.
Another interesting idea whose significance is unclear is the race and gender reversals among the cast. Actress Cori Lynn Peterson is cast as boy mechanic Billy Biker, Stranger's sidekick. Japanese Mr. Yamarama is played by Bryan Van Gorder, a white actor. "Frank" and "Hank" (Sarah Sidman and Vonnie Roemer) are two valley-girl types wearing black sunglasses and neon bolero tops.
This cross-casting is intended to criticize race and gender stereotypes in contrast to Hum's prejudices. But in a genre that depends on the substitution of archetypes for complex characters, this attack seems singularly out of place.
The play breaks its one-dimensional approach at one point in the second act, when Senator Ham talks to the phosphorescent woman. Hum does have compassion for one group--the people of his poor state--and his greed and ruthlessness are partly based on a fear that he will be poor again someday. Money for farmers is more important to him than money for Eastern liberal artists who despise him for his Southern, lower-class roots.
"But art feeds the soul, not the body," the phosphorescent woman says. Hum counters, "You try telling that to a man eating mush."
Yet Ham's vulnerability is soon masked by another bigoted tirade, never to reappear. More of this kind of complexity could give the play depth and direction when the message and the pointless slapstick begin to get stale.
On the whole, The Bathtub is an entertaining piece of work, only occasionally marred by tiresome moralism and absurdity that is pretentious rather than humorous. Even those who find its message too simplistic can enjoy it for its witty lines and fine acting.