How to Heal the Hurt is a Triumph

by Brad Quinn

Red Door - Community theater is always a rather hit or miss proposition. To paraphrase Forest Gump, it is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you are going to get. I am here to tell you, however, that you can’t judge what’s inside by the box.

So let’s get the aesthetic details out of the way first. Red Door Ensemble’s production of How to Heal the Hurt by Hating certainly won’t look impressive as you walk in to the space. Public Space One is a dingy little unfinished basement of a room, with hardly enough space for a stage let alone an audience. A load bearing column is placed right in the middle of the seating, and the front row seats are so close to the foot of the stage it’s likely you could reach out and touch the performers if you so desired (not recommended). And speaking of the seats, they are those really uncomfortable metal folding chairs probably surplus from 1978.

The lighting for the show consists of whatever lighting sources were available with the room itself. The curtain is basically a couple of black sheets hung on a string, and the set consists of a couch, end table, coffee table, and bookshelf which seem likely to have been rescued from various curbsides on moving day. In other words, every thing about this production screams “cheap”.

None of that matters at all.

If you ever needed any assurance that the only thing that really matters in theater is the performances, then this show is the one to do just that. I’ll admit I was skeptical when taking my seat. It certainly looked like guerrilla theater, and my experience with that sort of thing has usually been not so good. Within a few minutes, however, of the three actresses taking the stage, I had forgotten all about my surroundings.

Kelli Michel, Jana Stedman, and Ashley Yates put in phenomenal performances, each portraying a different aspect of the same person, an unnamed female narrator. They are collectively the play’s only character. This seems a little curious at first, but it doesn’t take long to catch on to the fact that the show is essentially one long internal monologue done by three people. Ashley Yates does a fantastic job of playing a more cynical, angry part of the character. Her stage presence is magnetic. Kelli Michel plays a more romantic, emotional part of the character, with just the right amount of force. It would be easy to go overboard or remain too passive, but she navigates it perfectly. And Jana Stedman is the anchor. She plays the hurt and confused part of the character, but the part that must maintain and deal with the day to day. She is steady and assured in her performance.

The only complaint I could possibly have about this arrangement is that it is incredibly difficult to focus your attention at all three of them at once. Only one actress spoke at a time, but you miss a lot of subtle performances if you only concentrate on that particular actress at that time. I happened to look over at Ms. Yates during the opening scene when all three were onstage at the same time, and was rewarded by seeing a range of expressions and reactions to Ms. Michel while she was delivering her monologue. It was quite interesting to think about it in terms of our own internal dialogues, where different parts of our psyche past, present, or future might have entirely different reactions than whatever aspect of our selves is active at the time.

The play itself is adapted from a book by Anita Liberty, who presumably wrote it in a semi-autobiographical fashion. I actually found the title misleading, though, as there really was very little hating in this show. It’s about heartache and healing, and though there is some occasional bile thrown the way of the story’s unseen ex-boyfriend Mitch, it is really more introspective and understanding of the nature of emotional pain. Men do not have to be afraid that they will find themselves bashed or belittled in this script; it is above that.

And it’s funny. It’s the humor that is born of our shared experiences and through the use of clever word play. Which is, in my opinion, one of the toughest kinds of humor to pull off because it requires expert timing and delivery. Again, these ladies did not disappoint. All three of them were spot on in all aspects. I found myself laughing out loud on multiple occasions…and take my word for it, that is not something I do easily.

All in all I would call this show a triumph, and top to bottom the best show I have seen so far this year despite its inherent limitations. Ignore the uncomfortable surroundings, the cheap lighting, the fact that the costumes are basically right out of the closet of the actresses in the show, and the set that looks like a poor college guy’s basement apartment. These things truly do not matter when you have a good script and great actresses to bring it to life.