BODY AWARENESS receives great reviews

Review: ‘Body Awareness’ at Hyde Park Theatre

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin | Monday, April 12, 2010, 03:18 PM

Just a reminder everyone: The folks at the fictional New England Shirley State University in Annie Baker’s smart comedy “Body Awareness,” now getting a delightful spin at Hyde Park Theatre, are not celebrating Eating Disorders Week, though that’s what the calendar says.

No, Phyllis, a painfully politically correct lesbian psychology professor, has renamed the occasion Body Awareness Week. And if all goes according to her plans, the students and faculty will think meaningful — and politically correct — thoughts about gender and body politics.
But of course, nothing goes as planned.
Yet, rather than belittle her characters for their overzealous philosophizing, Baker crafts a gentle comedy that leaves even the most ardent. humorless feminist with dignity in tact.
Deftly directed by Ken Webster, the 90-minute “Body Awareness” is set in a fictional bucolic college town that’s all too familiar to Austinites.
When a photographer, Frank Bonitatibus (Kenneth Wayne Bradley), arrives as a guest artist for Body Awareness week, in he drops to stay at the home of Phyllis (Emily Erington), her partner Joyce (Katherine Catmull) and Joyce’s 21-year-old son Jared (Stephen Mercantel), who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome.
But Frank’s photos of nude of women ignite an explosively critical reaction from Phyllis. Never mind that they intrigue Joyce and spur Jared — a self-proclaimed “autodidact” who works at McDonald’s — to confront his girlfriend-less status.
Baker unravels her story from a Monday to a Friday, with Phyllis giving an introduction to each day’s Body Awareness Week activities — short monologues that are satirical enough to stand as their own comedic send up of academia.
The most meaningful action takes place in Phyllis and Joyce’s home though as the couple try to bridge their widely differing opinions of Frank’s nude photography while also trying to deal with Jared’s escalating anxiety over his socially stunted behavior. Jared’s is repeatedly reminded by his mother and Phyllis that a lack of empathy is a key symptom of Asperger’s.
But kindly, Baker unmasks the resistance to empathy that all her characters share. And that gives “Body Awareness” its gentle heart.
A shrewd director of modern comedies, Webster keeps the play’s pacing at a relaxed yet efficient clip, letting the pauses in Baker’s dialogue linger to greater comic effect.
Mercantel stands out as the awkward man-child Jared, gracefully handling his character’s strange ricocheting between clever quip, childish defensiveness and hurtful jabs.
In the end, Jared edges toward exercising empathy, something “Body Awareness’ humorously reminds is sometimes lacking from over-analyzed lives.
“Body Awareness” continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through May 8. Hyde Park Theare, 511 W. 43rd St. www.hydeparktheatre.org
Photo by Bret Brookshire.