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The Killing of Sister George The TACT company doesn’t make a strong case for reviving this comedy/drama about a sadomasochistic lesbian relationship.
By Joel Benjamin The fifty years since its original production haven’t been kind to Frank Marcus’s The Killing of Sister George, a play considered daring and explosive for its depiction of a sadomasochistic lesbian relationship between a tough middle-aged actress and her pathologically childlike lover (although Marcus considered the play a comedy). The current production by The Actors Company Theatre—TACT—unfortunately doesn’t make a strong case for the play. The staging by Drew Barr, is a weird combination of audacity and ill-conception, beginning with the daring, but misleading, set by Narelle Sissons (who also did the costumes), a surreal child’s playroom which gives the impression that the play is a fantasy rather than the realistic sitting room comedy/drama (with a twist) it actually is. The play, set in 1964 London, takes place during the two weeks leading up to the demise of June Buckridge’s popular radio drama character Sister George (Caitlin O’Connell), a nurse in the fictional town of Applehurst. The news of her firing devastates Buckridge. The character of Sister George has been so internalized by Buckridge that she insists on being called Sister George even outside the radio studio. George takes her ever increasing rage out on her seemingly immature live-in companion Alice (Margot White), nicknamed Childie. George spews constant putdowns and insults at her, including forcing Childie to eat the butt of a cigar. Childie proves she is no child and is, in fact, totally in control of her future when she betrays George when she is at her lowest point. The person who is charged with informing George of her imminent fictional death is the elegant BBC executive Mrs. Mercy Croft (TACT founder Cynthia Harris). When George vehemently protests, Mercy Croft is forced to bring up a list of George’s indiscretions. To soften the blow she offers George a humiliating part in an upcoming radio series which only makes things worse.
Ducking in and out of the flat is the fourth character, the ever-helpful neighbor, Madame Xenia (Dana Smith-Croll), a drolly exotic Tarot reader and astrologer who appears to be around for comic relief. The problems with this manifestation of Sister George begin with slack pacing, the miscasting of one role and the misinterpretation of another and end with the effects of the march of time and changing morals on the dramatic thrust of the play. In an era in which even the silliest TV sitcom takes homosexuality for granted, it’s difficult to understand the impact this play had in the mid-sixties and why it’s a second-tier cult favorite. Ms. O’Connell comes across as if she is playacting her meanness. She is convincingly distraught, but not convincingly tough. Margot White’s portrayal cannily catches the internal struggles of Childie as she continually weighs all her options. Cynthia Harris, a fine actress and the backbone of TACT, is too grandmotherly and kind to be convincing as a female BBC executive, a woman in a male-dominated world. This character has to exude a power only partly concealed by a façade of elegance. Ms. Harris’ interest in Childie comes across as maternal, missing the darker undercurrents. Dana Smith-Croll plays Madame Xenia, the neighbor/medium, as something between a gypsy fortune teller and a yenta. Her garish pink wig and over-the-top pink outfit turn her into a caricature. TACT certainly went all out in this production, but the pieces never quite come together. The Killing of Sister George (through November 1, 2014) Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes with one intermission 
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