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Rhoda in Potatoland (Her Fall-starts)

Rhoda in Potatoland (Her Fall-starts) is an Ontological-Hysteric Theatre play by Richard Foreman. it Premiered 1976, at 491 Broadway, New York. It ran from December, 1975 until February 1976. It starred Kate Manheim as Rhoda, and Bob Fleischner as Max. The play is insistently aimed to reshape spectators’ perceptions by focusing on form and structure. Foreman created a perceptually challenging environment that forces the audience to participate actively in constructing their experience of Theatre, especially since the visuals and the text are challenging to follow. The play received an Obie Award for performance and best Theatre piece in 1976.

Plot

The play is a one act play, it starts with Rhoda (Ms. Manheim), having a vision, a nightmare, and we “the audience” are her witness. The Visions are sexual and bizarre. They include potatoes, dances and nightmares. Rhoda meets friends, strangers and a lover in these dreams. The play starts as a regular conversation between Rhoda and her Friend Sophia, and the Max who becomes Rhoda’s lover enters sitting on throne, and that is when Rhoda's Dreams begin. We enter Salons, bathrooms and woods as we experience Rhoda’s visions. It all ends with her being punished for dreaming.

Setting

Sitting on bleachers, the audience is inside a shadow box. The walls are black and rigged with devices and picture frames, sliding platforms, a topsy-turvy bed. Interstices String cat-cradles the stage space. A table is placed on a hill at a precarious tilt. On the horizon is large shoe and a teeny bot. The Setting of the play switches between reality and dreams. We start with Rhoda and Sophia in a cafe, while Max suddenly appears sitting in a throne, it then switches into a bedroom where Hannah joins them briefly. Then as potatoes they appear in a field trying to write a letter while Eleanor joins them. We suddenly switch to a shoe salon Where Rhoda, a Salesman and Sophia argue. We enter the woods with Agatha, a room where tea is served, a Cafe where Max and Hannah talk, Max on a throne, Rhoda in a Bathroom having a nightmare dance, and finally a room with a table where Rhoda is punished for dreaming.

Characters/Cast

• Rhoda - Kate Manheim (protagonist who experiences dreams and we the audience followed her)
• Max - Bob Fleischner (Rhoda's lover)
• Sophia - Rena Gill (Rhoda’s friend)
• Waiter - Gautam Dasgupta
• Admirer - John Matturri
• Hannah - Ela Troyano
• Eleanor - Camille Foss
• Agatha - Cathy Scott
• Crew Persons - Tim Kennedy, Phillip Johnston and Charley Bergengren

Interpretation

Foreman’s play is considered ontological because of its obsession with questions of the human consciousness and being, Hysteric because it also deals with a more surrealist world of dreams, sexual desire, and anxieties. In the play both Max and Rhoda represent Foreman’s consciousness and fears. Rhoda, in particular, represents Foreman grappling with the nature of sexuality.

Reception

The play had mixed reviews, Rockwell from The New York Times said “This won’t be the year that Richard Foreman comes entirely out of the avant-garde closet: he’s too busy in there, creating theatre that fascinates a small if articulate audience, but will it be the year that more and more people encounter him on the outside, and maybe go into his closet themselves.” On the other hand Eric Bogosian thought “Only minutes of any particular production seemed alive. I longed for intensity, fun, manic energy, insanity, brains; “performers” instead of “actors”. I wanted theatre that was more than the sum of its parts.”

Sources

• [FOREMAN, R., & DAVY, K. (2007). Rhoda in Potatoland. Twentieth-Century Drama Full-Text Database. Cambridge [England], Proquest LLC.
• Rabkin, Gerald. Richard Foreman. Baltimore. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
• Davy, Kate. Richard Foreman and the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre. Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Research Press, c1981.
• Foreman, Richard, 1937- Plays and manifestos. New York, New York University Press, 1976.
• Foreman, Richard. Unbalancing acts “foundations for a theater”; edited by Ken Jordan ; foreword by Peter Sellars. New York : Pantheon Books, c1992.
• Foreman, Richard. Bad boy Nietzsche and other plays. New York Theatre Communications Group ; St. Paul, MN : Distributed to the Book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, 2007.
• Weideli, Walter. The art of Bertolt Brecht. English version by Daniel Russell.New York University Press, 1963.
• Ewen, Frederic, 1899-1988. Bertolt Brecht; his life, his art, and his times. New York, Citadel Press, 1967