The Odd Couple

by Neil Simon directed by Danielle Kwatinetz

starring Nora Dickey and Rashida Jones

at Leverett House Old Library

March 17-19

In the wake of the inexplicably entitled "Year of the Woman," perhaps it would not be inappropriate to remember that the issue of women in the arts is not important simply because we wish to increase employment opportunities for actresses. There is a growing recognition that the "universal" truths that art tries to articulate might not be so "universal." Or perhaps it would be better to say that there are million of truths, just as there are milliions of truths, just as there are millions of voices, and probably a good half of these are female voices.

That is not to say that the female experience is the same for everyone. Toni Morrison speaks with one voice; "The Piano," "Thelma and Louise" and Roseanne Arnold with yet others. Whatever the medium, whether comedy or drama, this female voice expresses a sense that females occupy a separate place in society, one which provides them with a unique perspective, one which affects their reactions to the roles they are assigned.

One must assume that when Neil Simon wrote a female version of his classic play, The Odd Couple, he had something in mind other than creating more roles for women (commendable as such a goal might be). The implication surely is that a female version would express something that the male version could not, that females possess a unique voice that would make a reworking of the play subtly different. If such was Simon's intent, then he was doomed to failure; if such was not his intent, it is hard to see what the point of this exercise was.

Neil Simon, in his best works, takes domestic and daily interactions and places the audience at one remove from them, in such a way that we can laugh at the recognizable eccentricities and silliness that make up life.

One doesn't have to have grown up in Yonkers or Brighton Beach to find the humor, the plays translate perfectly beyond the confines of setting. Simon took his experiences, and made them all of our experiences. In this female verson of The Odd Couple, that generality has deteriorated into a stereotyping which makes the rest of the play hollow.

In Leverett House's production of the play, directed by Danielle Kwatinetz, the basic plotline has remained unaltered, as Florence Unger (Nora Dickey), a fastidious housewife, moves in with her slovenly friend Olive Madison (Rashida Jones) after both women separate from their husbands.

From the beginning, Dickey's whining, flaky portrayal of Florence makes her so unsympathetic that it is hard to imagine how Olive had become friends with her in the firs place, never mind why she would invite this walking neurosis into her home!

The audience never gets a sense of any personality from Florence, no insight into what created this tensed up, time bomb of a woman. Granted, the prissy Florence should be annoying, but not completely unlikeable. Dickey's failure to develop Florence beyond a superficial level leaves the characters with nothing to do but trade stale jokes about their relative cleanliness. In addition, the ululating, screechy voice that Dickey uses for her character is the equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard, or a rusty train whistle.

Predictably, the humor only picks up in the second act with the introduction of Jesus and Manolo, two Spanish brothers played flamboyantly by Daniel J. Goor and Andres Colapinto.

With the brothers' appearance, the dialogue finally gains energy, and the genuine verbal fireworks restore some sense that these are complex characters that we should care about, and not merely cartoons. Yet, with the exit of the men, the women are once again stranded in Toon Town.

Since Simon bothered to write a female version, one would hope that he would provide us with females, not Oscar, Felix and friends in dresses. There is not one single female voice, yet, paradoxically, the female voice is distinct. There should be some recognition, in an attempt of this sort, of this distinction.

Jones' Olive come closest to this idea, with a tough sexiness that doesn't preclude her from admitting to loneliness, to vulnerability. Jones doesn't settle for turning Olive into a sterotype. Instead, Jones infuses Simon's creation, a hard-nosed sports reporter, with streaks of warmth and compassion, making Olive the closest thing to a real complex character that this play has.

After all is said and done, The Odd Couple, the female version, is not a bad play, yet it leaves one aching for all that it could have been. Forced jokes about pregnancy and little speeches about women's lib are nothing more than tokens if they are spoken by the same cliched female characters we have become accustomed to. In spite of Jones' solid performance and the riotous supporting cast, director Kwatinetz fails to overcome the limitations ill-thought conception.