On the Verge, or the Geography of Yearning
Cross the wordplay of S J Perelman with the world-in-a-time-warp vision of Caryl Churchill and you might approximate the special flavor of ON THE VERGE. In Eric Overmyer's chimerical new comedy, three Victorian lady explorers set out on an adventure that takes them to darkest Africa, highest Himalaya and Terra Incognita....Blending Tom Stoppard's limber linguistics with the historic overview of a Thornton Wilder, Mr Overmyer takes his audience on a mirthful safari...spinning into time travel.Three `sister sojourners', each a prototypical Victorian lady explorer, equipped with dialog as pithy as their helmets, thwack their machetes through the wilderness while telling tales of past jaunts among the natives. As intrepid trekkers, they put the lie to any charge that they are representatives of a weaker sex. Mr Overmyer has written a play that is joyfully feminist.Heroines to their heart, the explorers can accommodate themselves to any emergency (natural or man-made), although they are momentarily disoriented as they approach modern times. In their kaleidoscopic adventure, they journey through a rain forest of hundreds of artifacts from the future household utensils, mechanical contrivances and a side-view automobile mirror that reads `Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear'. How does one deal with such a chimera?... In the play there is wit within the palaver. As one traveler says, `I have seen the future and it is slang'. The author himself is an ecologist of language and a shrewd observer of our quest to control our environment and the environment of others.... A frolicsome jaunt through a continuum of space, time, history, geography, feminism and fashion, Mr Overmyer's cavalcade is on the verge of becoming a thoroughly serendipitous journey. --Mel Gussow, The New York TimesWith a handful of plays...Eric Overmyer has established himself as one of contemporary theater's wittiest playwrights. --Jan Stuart, Seven DaysEric Overmyer [is] one of this nation's most accomplished and vividly imaginative playwrights. --Wayne Johnson, The Seattle TimesWith a handful of plays...Eric Overmyer has established himself as one of contemporary theater's wittiest playwrights. --Jan Stuart, Seven DaysEric Overmyer [is] one of this nation's most accomplished and vividly imaginative playwrights. --Wayne Johnson, The Seattle Times