By Katie Scarvey
kscarvey@salisburypost.com
The new St. Thomas Players production “Body of Water” will leave audiences pondering.
The phrase “body of water” suggests a lake or something similar.
But then again, we are all bodies of water, since the human body is 94 percent water. Water suggests fluidity. Water can change and take many different forms.
Perhaps that’s what Lee Blessing’s play is about ó the fluid nature of reality.
“Body of Water” opens with a man and a woman waking up together one morning in a house high on a hill, entirely surrounded by water.
They have no long-term memory.
They have no idea who they are, where they are, how they got there or whether they have ever met.
A younger woman, Wren, arrives and tells the man that his name is Moss and the woman that her name is Avis.
Over the course of five scenes ó which are supposed to represent three days, according to Blessing ó Wren gives Moss and Avis three different versions of their biographies ó who they are, where they are, why they are there, and what is going to happen to them.
Did they commit a crime? Maybe. Is Wren their daughter? Maybe.
It’s hard to determine the truth, because Wren’s versions of reality could not all be true simultaneously.
“It’s funny how many truths there are in this play,” says director Sarah Drinkard.
Audiences should not expect a nice tidy ending.
“Some plays end and they don’t give you answers and you’re so frustrated,” Drinkard says. “This ends and it doesn’t give you any definite answers, but what it it does give you is a lot to think about ó and that’s fulfulling enough.
“You don’t leave frustrated; you leave with a lot on your mind.”
The play has a lot to do with human relationships, Drinkard says, and about memories ó how they’re fluid and play tricks on us.
Drinkard says that playwright Lee Blessing’s divorce had a big influence on this play.
She describes it as “kind of Hitchcockian.”
“It gets a little creepy sometimes,” she says.
But, she says, “I love this play.”
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Produced by St. Thomas Players, the drama troupe associated with Center for Faith and the Arts, “Body of Water” stars Claudia Galup, Dana Neelis and Bob Paolino. Diana Moghrabi is stage manager. The play will be performed at Florence Busby Corriher Theater on the campus of Catawba College Aug. 6-9 and 13-16. Show time is 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10.
The play is rated PG-13 for language and subject matter.
For more information, call Center for Faith and the Arts at 704-647-0999.