‘The Pushover’ Probes Love and Violence in Pleasurably Quirky Fashion

John Patrick Shanley’s most famous play, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning “Doubt, A Parable,” focuses on a charismatic Catholic priest who may or may not be a sexual predator. Father Flynn, who has been played by such powerhouse actors as Liev Schreiber and, in a screen adaptation, Philip Seymour Hoffman, maintains he is innocent of any wrongdoing.In contrast, in Mr. Shanley’s latest work, “The Pushover,” now having its world premiere off-Broadway at the Chain Theatre, the guilty announce their trespasses loudly and proudly. This is especially true of Evelyn, a character described in the stage directions as having “something quietly ferocious about her.” Evelyn is played by Rebecca De Mornay, an actress known for her portraits of sexy, often assertive, sometimes dangerous women in 1980s and ‘90s films such as “Risky Business,” “Runaway Train,” and “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.”Now well into her 60s, Ms. De Mornay is still blonde and gorgeous, though markedly older than her fellow cast members: Christina Toth, who plays Soochi, a con artist who reveals her own culpability, albeit after some nudging, and Di Zhu, assigned the title role, a woman named Pearl, who winds up entangled with the other two.We meet Pearl first, during her first session with a male therapist, played by a dry Christopher Sutton. Pearl tells him she is a chef, and that she’s gay, and that she likes to go to church “when I don’t know what to do.” She wears white gloves, a sartorial quick that amuses the shrink. People like them, Pearl explains, particularly “strong women…I like strong women. I have a weakness for strength.”The next scene unfolds at a spa in New Mexico run by Evelyn, who turns out to be Pearl’s ex. Soochi shows up with a package from Pearl, whom she is currently dating and, Evelyn suggests, robbing blind. Soochi seems a little unhinged—Mr. Shanley calls her “a touch feral” in the script — but Evelyn quickly emerges as more threatening.When Soochi insists she would never mess with Evelyn, using a more colorful verb, the latter snarls approvingly: “Because I am a bad person…In fact, when it comes to you, I am an evil person.” Not wanting to seem like a pushover herself, Soochi counters, “Well, I’m not good,” to which Evelyn replies, “No, you’re not. But correct me if I’m wrong. You don’t have blood on your hands.”The inevitable showdown involving all three women takes place in Queens, at a Chinese restaurant that Pearl is about to open; no blood is spilled, but there is a pink plastic gun. Kirk Gostkowski, the Chain’s artistic director, seems to have nudged all three of his performers towards camp, presumably to accommodate the outsized goofiness of the script, which doesn’t seem likely to earn Mr. Shanley— also an Oscar winner, for 1987’s “Moonstruck” — any substantial additional honors.That said, this comedy did, in its more lucid moments, make me think about the sometimes ironic nature of power dynamics in relationships — specifically, how seeming passivity can wield its own force. Evelyn may be the obvious alpha in the play’s romantic triangle, but it’s Pearl, with her demure gloves and fondness for dominant, even abusive partners, who sends the other women into a competitive tizzy; at one point, she even gets control of the gun — after Evelyn has held a butcher knife to Soochi’s throat.Later, when Pearl’s therapist tells her she has “found her own strength,” she demurs: “No. When I picked up that gun, I wasn’t me anymore.” She adds, “God made me like I am. I see beautiful things. In terrible people. And I see me there, too.” If “Pushover” doesn’t mine that contradiction with much depth, it acknowledges it with enough humor and mischief to sustain a pleasurably quirky one-act piece.

‘The Pushover’ Probes Love and Violence in Pleasurably Quirky Fashion

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