Esther Emery, Esther Emery, Esther Emery
The first time anyone was aware of this Moxie Gal, she was a stage manager at the Old Globe, soaking up plays and directorial techniques. Next thing we knew, she was directing around town, such things as “Hecuba” at 6th@Penn, Ruff Yeager’s unforgettable “Cool As We Fly” at Adams Ave. Studio, and “Chrysalis: Rapechild” at Sledgehammer. Soon after Moxie was formed, Emery was named an artistic associate. She staged their productions of “Limonade Tous les Jours” and “Devil Dog Six,” and last season at Cygnet Theatre, Cygnet’s award-winning “Yellowman” and “Communicating Doors.” The range of her talent and her sensitivity boggle the mind.
Last year Emery’s body of work earned her the inaugural Jack O’Brien Excellence in Directing Award, bestowed by the San Diego Theatre Critics. Now Emery has added two more categories to her resume, mother (she and her husband, set designer Nick Fouch, recently produced a son, Milo) and playwright.
From Emery’s directorial work one might have surmised that she possesses a vivid imagination, an acute sense of the absurd and an unbounded feminist sensibility imbued with worldwide cultural and literary influences, topped by an unstoppable sense of adventure.
Currently at the Lyceum Space, Moxie produces Emery’s first full-length play, “Rhubarb or How to Play With a Rollergirl.” If the fast-moving, freewheeling and wacky play has a flaw, it is that it embodies all the above. As for what to expect, take your brilliant mind, your sharpened ears and your funnybone. Think David Lindsay-Abair’s “Fuddy Meers,” Terrence McNally’s “The Perfect Ganesh” and Alan Ayckbourn’s “Communicating Doors.”
Adorable Jeannine Marquie portrays Cecilia, a sexually repressed would-be artist waiting for the muse to strike. Her current oeuvre consists of vegetables. A fine arts university graduate, she lives in a large apartment provided by her parents ” the only way they could get the timid, frightened and celibate young woman to leave home.
Rawboned, breakfast beer-guzzling Chrissy Burns plays Karen, a free-spirited, roller-derby-obsessed bisexual to whom Cecilia rents a room and then becomes attracted. Observing and commenting on the action that ensues are two members of the American National Roster of Nighttime Oracles, M Susan Peck and Tim Parker, who also appear in dreams to answer questions (one per visit, please; and no, Muses are from a different department).
Moxie artistic director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg stages the imaginative comedy with fine detail that deepens character. Judy Watson’s droll costumes enhance the production and so does Eric Lotze’s lighting. The greatest enhancements, however, are extraordinary performances that enable one to see what is only described.
“Rhubarb” plays 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays (no performance March 5) and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 9 (free parking at Horton Plaza with ticket stub) at the Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza. Tickets are $15 to $20.
For tickets or information, go to moxietheatre.com or call (619) 544-1000.
