Extremities

                                A photo from our past production of Extremities.

    Twilight Repertory (known then as the New Group Theatre Company) produced the play in part to foster discussion of rape and rape prevention in the Portland community. Sunday matinees were followed by discussion groups and a presentation by local rape prevention groups.

    Mastrosimone wrote his play after meeting a woman, whom he called Mary, who had been raped by a man who was later set free and promised to come back and “get her.” In crafting the play, he wanted to set up a domestic version of the trial and its aftermath. When Raul attempts to rape Marjorie in her own home during the late morning, she is able to subdue him and chains him into the large fireplace in her old farmhouse in the country. When her roommates come home, they want to call the police, but Marjorie has no proof and Raul has promised to come back and kill them all if he gets away. It is the confrontation between Marjorie and her roommates that constitutes the heart and soul of the play.

    In our production we attempted to make the attempted rape and its aftermath as visceral as possible, to give the audience a sense of how awful such an experience could be. Although some theatre goers found the subject matter too gruesome, no one left theatre unaffected.