New Archive:
January 2001 Issue
The Tale of the Allergist's Wife
Reviewed by Elyse Trevers
In The Tale of the Allergist's Wife at the Ethel Barrymore
Theatre in New York City, Linda Lavin plays Marjorie Taub, the dilettante
wife of Dr. Ira Taub. Marjorie is a caricature of a wealthy, Jewish woman
with no direction to her life, who is desperately searching for her identity.
When the story begins, it is obvious that Marjorie has had some kind of
breakdown. Still mourning the death of her therapist, she "accidentally"
breaks several porcelain figurines at the Disney Store.
When her mother naively suggests volunteer work as the answer to her daughter's ennui, Lavin breathlessly blurts out a wonderfully comical monologue, detailing all of her volunteer activities. Marjorie is pretentious and yearns to be an intellectual. "I delve, I reflect, I brood," she explains. Bemoaning her college business major, she now studies German writers and philosophers as if they hold the key to her search. (And she liberally sprinkles her conversations with literary references and allusions.)
The straight man to Marjorie's angst is her saintly husband, Dr. Ira, the allergist (portrayed by Tony Roberts). After retiring at an early age, he's now opened a free clinic to treat poor people. Taub constantly cites patients' testimonials to his greatness. And if we don't believe them, there are the words of Marjorie's own mother, who thinks her son-in-law is god-like and too good for her own daughter. Roberts is so beatific as to be almost intolerable, but you have to admire the guy because everyone else does. Roberts delivers his lines with such innocence that you can almost envision his halo.
Marjorie's relationship with her mother has a somewhat familiar ring since they are continuously quarreling. Well-played by Shirl Bernheim, Frieda provides much of the humor in the play with constant references to the condition of her bowels and with her scatological outbursts. (Why is it funny when a septuagenarian curses?) She's bluntly honest, especially towards her daughter. (In fact, in some ways she's reminiscent of the mother Sophia on the television show Golden Girls. ) A source of exasperation and embarrassment to Marjorie, Frieda also reminds her daughter of her Jewish heritage.
Marjorie's dull existence takes an interesting turn when a childhood friend, Lee Green, nee Lillian Greenberg, accidentally appears on her doorstep. Lee (played by Michelle Lee who looks too young to be a childhood friend of Lavin's) is exuberant. She's been everywhere and done everything. She has no roots and her exciting life makes Taub's dreary existence seem even drearier.
As Lee tells Marjorie about her past, she drops the names of the most significant figures of the 20th century (from Lenny Bruce to Henry Kissinger) and even claims to have provided inspiration for many of them. She gave Spielberg the idea for ET, got Princess Di interested in land mines and provided the Campbell's Soup for Andy Warhol. Lee is everything Marjorie yearns to be. She's done exciting things and met fascinating people, and she becomes Marjorie's spiritual guru.
Marjorie Taub, the pathetic drudge of a wife in the first scene, transforms into an energetic, robust woman. Eventually, though Lee awakens more than excitement in the Taubs and they grow fearful of her.
The characters in the play are obviously Jewish. If their names aren't indicative enough, the play is sprinkled with enough Jewish terms to make it obvious. Words like hamatashen and tuches show up as gratuitous reminders, even if they don't fit contextually in the story and only seem to stereotype the characters. They do, however, get laughs from audience members, who witness the characters wrestle with their religion throughout the play.
As a young woman, Lee changes her name from the ethnic-sounding Lillian Greenberg. Later in the play, when Marjorie discusses taking a cruise with her friend to Germany, her mother reminds her of the Holocaust. She declares that her daughter shouldn't set foot in the country, but Marjorie casually ignores her Protests. Although the Taubs older daughter has married a rabbi and is living in Israel, the parents show no feeling for the country. Yet, ironically, when Marjorie gathers her resolve to kicks her friend out, she accuses Lee of being anti-Israel.
Although the depiction of Marjorie as an overindulged, spoiled Jewish woman is not a flattering one, the play is not offensive and that's due to Linda Lavin's hysterical portrayal. The word hysterical here has two distinct meanings. One is that she is comical while at the same time, she is playing a woman in the throes of hysteria.
For example, at one point before her husband and mother have met Lee, they convince Marjorie that Lee is merely a figment of her overactive imagination. Believing them, Marjorie works herself into frenzy. Lavin so over-exaggerates every move and word that it's hard to take her seriously. Instead we just laugh at her antics. A petite woman, she is the master of the facial expression. Charles Busch, an outrageous performer himself, wrote the show and claims that he envisioned Linda Lavin in the part when he created the character in the play.
With a luxurious set by Santo Loquasto, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife is one of the more enjoyable shows on Broadway. Undoubtedly, the character Marjorie Taub would disagree. She'd probably feel that this play is not highbrow or intellectual enough. But for the rest of us, it works. The show is funny and quirky and we laugh. Sometimes that's all an audience really wants.
Elyse
Trevers is a theater critic from Long Island, New York
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