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RetroRocket

'Reality unbridled'

1/24/02 online review of preview performance at Mobius, Boston

Diane Edgecomb: Restraints

Memory and fantasy flow through Diane Edgecomb's performance, "Restraints," like a warm current of water easing its way through a channel.

It's essentially a one-act, one-woman monologue work-in-progress, written and performed by Edgecomb, in which she plumbs the depths of her unnamed character's unquiet mind.

Stationed near center stage at the Mobius performance space, is a canvas straightjacket, that acts as a constant reminder of our narrator's predicament. Of course, we're never really sure of exactly what that is, but Edgecomb's spare, often tormented patter walks us through a virtual garden of psychological possibilities.

Her unnamed character could be a madwoman in an insane asylum who rambles on about Rapunzel and Jesus Christ, or is she? Calling restraints a monologue hardly does it justice — there's a substantial amount of physical business the actress carries on.

Throughout the piece, she works with several simple props, such as the aforementioned canvas jacket, a length of tree limb and a loop of rope attached to the ceiling. She repeatedly hoists herself, using the rope as a sort of a crude pulley system, which seems to both underline the character's compulsiveness and her askew view of the world.

At one point in the evening, Edgecomb hauls herself by the feet, upside down, while maintaining her measured rant throughout.

In another scene, the sleeve of the restraining jacket becomes a sinister hand puppet in one of the piece's most rewarding moments. Edgecomb's character carries on a dialogue with the devious sprite that is unsettling and hard to forget.

A gifted actress and compelling storyteller, Edgecomb maintains a level of concentration throughout this nearly 60 minute piece that is, one can be sure, no mean feat.

While the narrative structure of "Restraints" jettisons traditional theatrical assumptions of plotline and dialogue in favor of a more stream-of-consciousness structure, Edgecomb's ability to get inside the character makes it a compelling and well-crafted piece of theater.

Paul Parcellin

The preceding review originally appeared on Retro-Rocket.com February 2003.