➤ SYNONYMS, from p.34 ➤ MOLLY SWEENEY, from p.34
Yet the intricate story is so fascinating,
and in this production the
performances so accomplished, I
was riveted from start to fi nish.
Pamela Sabaugh doesn’t merely
perform the title role, she inhabits
it. Her Molly is a delicately balanced
stew of confl icting emotions
— confi dence, fear, hope, and despair.
Her Irish brogue registers
as completely convincing. A longtime
member of Theater Breaking
Through Barriers, she has juvenile
macular degeneration and is
herself sight-impaired.
Sabaugh is reprising the role
she played over a decade ago at
the Amaryllis Theatre Company
in Philadelphia, then the fi rst
blind actress ever to play Molly.
Tommy Schrider lends a manic,
often comic air to the role of Frank,
injecting a welcome shot of energy
to the proceedings. Paul O’Brien
brings an unexpected vulnerability
to his portrayal of the proud,
pompous Mr. Rice. It’s abundantly
clear that he has as much riding
on the success of the treatment as
Molly does.
Perhaps most remarkable
is that this astonishing “Molly
Sweeney” busts pervasive myths.
Blindness isn’t always an all-ornothing
proposition, there are often,
so to speak, shades of gray.
Sighted people naturally assume
that blindness is a disability to
be avoided at all costs. Thanks
to Friel’s poetic meditation on the
topic and Sabaugh’s sensitive portrayal,
we see blindness from another
perspective, as something
that can be embraced, not feared.
What’s more, in today’s #MeToo
political climate, this production
allows us to re-evaluate the drama’s
feminist undercurrents. Both
Molly’s overbearing husband and
her doctor appear to coerce her
into taking great risks with her
body. Frank says his gentle wife
has “nothing to lose.” He couldn’t
be more wrong.
MOLLY SWEENEY | Keen Company,
Theatre Row, 410 W. 42nd
St. | Through Nov. 16: Tue.-Thu. at
7 p.m.; Fri.- Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sat. at
2 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. | $28-$65
at keencompany.org | Two hrs., 20
mins, with intermission
as he walks. His affect alternates
between deer-in-the-headlights
passivity and an impulse to provoke.
It’s uncertain how much
Yoav’s behavior is a put-on. In one
of the fi lm’s fi nal scenes, a woman
warns him that his imitation of
madness has crossed over into the
real thing.
“Synonyms” feels very literary,
and not in a way that’s trendy at
the moment. Yoav comes across as
a holy fool out of Dostoevsky. The
character loses control over himself.
He’s willing to fray his small
safety net.
But his desperation also rings
true in contemporary urban life;
his recitation of synonyms reminded
me of seemingly unhinged
people one encounters on New York
streets. The difference is that here
we have an entry point into the
meaning behind his muttering.
Yoav never articulates a political
critique of the Israeli government,
instead throwing out a long
string of negative adjectives to describe
the country to Emile. We
don’t see any of his military experience
till the fi lm’s fi nal third,
and it looks unpleasant in fairly
banal ways. No single moment of
violence pushed him away from
the country.
But Yoav doesn’t really fi nd a solution
to his problems in France.
He gets used by the couple he
views as friends. His French classes
try to instruct new immigrants
in the attitudes shaping the lives
of the French, but in a really condescending
manner.
In the end, his exile becomes
increasingly interior. He can’t become
French or escape being Israeli.
He’s an individual with a
complex and diffi cult personality,
but other people’s perceptions of
him and the conditions in which
he lives are ruled by those two
countries. There’s no synonym for
Yoav.
SYNONYMS | Directed by Nadav
Lapid | Kino Lorber | In French
and Hebrew with English Subtitles
| Opens Oct. 25 | Film at Lincoln
Center, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film
Center, 144 W. 65th St.; fi lmlinc.
org | Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th
St.; quadcinema.com
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GayCityNews.com | October 24 - November 6, 2019 35
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