LITERALLY

By Ben Greenman

from forthcoming collection, as yet untitled

By far the most rewarding of the new crop of stage plays is Aileen Alter’s “psychological tilt” at the Brandon, On To The Next One, with a lead role divided evenly among three triplets, the Herron Sisters, the best-known of whom,  Barbara, was the child lead on a network sitcom, Window Dressing, some years ago. The other two, Geraldine and Alice, have worked mostly in the theater. On To The Next One is special for analysts: not only professionals, but amateurs, not entirely satisfying, perhaps too preoccupied with its own method, but of its kind a sustained triumph. Partly fantasy, partly a biography of the European performance artist and cabaret singer Carol Weber, it tells the story of a talented painter named Angela who is pulled into one of her self-portraits (literally: the canvas encloses her) and emerges as three distinct personas: The Alien, who performs each task as if practicing humanity; The Bird, nervous and aware (if not always self-aware); and The Claimant, constantly in the process of trying to put a price on the wrongs she believes she has experienced. Each version of Angela has a distinct look and feel, from the Alien’s chilly sexuality to the Bird’s marmish intensity to the Claimaint’s generic businesswear, intended to convince insurance investigators of her credibility but in fact far more wild and sexual than either of the others—and yet, they are all the same look, in a sense, as they are all Herrons. The only other performers on stage are a full gospel choir, probably African-American from the sound of them but wearing featureless red masks throughout. Songs start and stop, punctured by monologues and puncturing them, and it all builds to a thrilling climax in which Angela’s three parts go to war, to bed, and then to hell.