EXPLORING THE GULF IN A RELATIONSHIP
New Conservatory Theater is premiering in it’s West Coast debut, Audrey Cefaly’s 2017 play The Gulf – An Elegy. This intense one-act two-hander traces the seemingly laid back relationship between two women: Betty (Lauren Domingo) and Kendra (Amy Meyers). They’re spending a lazy afternoon on a small fishing boat floating down the shallow waters of a river delta in Alabama. The women are still fairly young, probably in their mid-thirties and have been lovers for years. Betty is pretty, optimistic and a bit of a dreamer. Reading from the optimistic self-help book What Color Is Your Parachute, she tosses out potential career paths to Kendra, who is just trying to relax and concentrate on fishing. More of a loner and set in her ways, Kendra is more reserved, secretive, cautious.
Laura Domingo, Amy Meyers
What starts out as a light-hearted conversation shifts slowly to deeper topics, revealing unresolved feelings, fears and frustrations. Any intimate friendship or relationship eventually gets to a place where both people put their cards on the table for the other to see, and, of course, no two people are ever in sync with each other on everything. As Kendra seems to withdraw, Betty pushes her harder. Tempers flare and both partners end up saying hurtful things in the moment.
And we get a front row seat as if we’re sitting in their therapy session or sitting next to them during a private dinner.
Amy Meyers, Laura Domingo
With Tracy Ward’s direction, both actresses give powerful, multi-layered portrayals of two strong-headed women who navigate the choppy waters of this long-term relationship. With some stunning dialogue, the play may be about two women surviving in a world where lesbians in the South don’t necessarily have the freedoms afforded other women, but it captures the dynamics and universality of anybody’s coupling. We get to see and hear both sides of their difficulties and are left, just as they are, wondering how it will all turn out.
Laura Domingo, Amy Meyers
Beautifully lit with ever-changing patterns by Sophia Craven, Jenna Forder’s evocative set of a small river boat helps to create an intimate, claustrophobic setting where, in the heighted tension, neither one of these very different people can escape. The 90-minute one-act has painful moments as well as passionate ones, but nothing really sentimental, which is something long-term couples let slip away anyway. Indeed, the playwright said of her plays, “[I like them] heavy on tension, low on sentiment.”
An elegy is a poem of serious self-reflection, which is what you may well be doing after seeing this thought-provoking production.
Amy Meyers, Laura Domingo
photos by Lois Tema
Laura Domingo, Amy Meyers
The Gulf – An Elegy
New Conservatory Theatre Center
Walker Theatre, 25 Van Ness Ave in San Francisco
Wed & Thurs 7:30, Fri & Sat at 8, Sun at 2
ends on November 24, 2024
for tickets ($25-72.50 including fees) visit NCTCSF