'Housewives of Mannheim' are in every American home

Often times, human role reinventions involve pulling other people close during times of vulnerability, only to push them away as the transformation toward self-efficacy is fulfilled. \nIn that sense, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Alan Brody's kitchen environment of 1944 working-class Brooklyn, as portrayed in his play "The Housewives of Mannheim," is similar to many American home scenes reflected throughout popular culture during the last 50 years.\nPlaying through Saturday at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, 107 West Ninth St., "The Housewives of Mannheim," directed by Jewish Theatre of Pittsburgh Artistic Director Jonathan Rest, provides the audience with characters who are self-conscious, lonely, loving and giving, and whose relationships fluctuate with their needs and desires of any given moment. \nEvolving from a typical 1940s housewife to an independent woman pursuing her own tastes and interests is the character May, performed by junior Hillary Hittner. May unites with her new Jewish neighbor, Sophie, who recently fled the Nazis in Europe. Bloomington resident Kate Braun performs as this neighbor.\nHittner takes the audience on a ride of spectacular proportions as her character identifies the box she feels locked inside and discovers "art" as her key to personal salvation.\nReminiscent of film superstar Ingrid Bergman, Hittner dazzles the audience with her grace and tempts their sensibilities with her vulnerability.\nBraun offers the audience a reflective calm in the character of Sophie, and her performance as a traveled and worn-down older woman complements May's projected exuberance and idealism throughout the show. \nIn one particular scene, Braun's public display of emotion sends shock waves through the audience and chills down audience members' backs as her suddenly enraged character smashed records during a disagreement with her friend.\nThe character Billie, performed by senior Sarah Feldman, provided the show's antagonism, although her character was guilty of nothing more than pushing May to rip free from the skin that once was her life as a former stay-at-home wife. \nBillie, a self-identified lesbian who was also married to a soldier fighting Fascism abroad, encourages May to test the limits of her sexual identity by leading her to the bedroom for sex one drunken night.\nFeldman's portrayal of Billie is both rugged and temperamental, but her presence often results in May progressing forward despite her friend's usual attempt at retreat. \nFeldman and Hittner's relationship provides the audience with a make-believe example of the complexities of modern life as the labels of "man" and "woman" were replaced in the show with "loving person" of all people regardless of a person's gender role identity. \nOne of May's revelations, after a trip to the art museum and a careful study of the painting "Housewives of Mannheim," leads her to conclude life encompasses nothing "good" or "bad."\nInstead, May reveals to Billie, in the one of the play's most inspiring moments, that interpreting life is like viewing a human hand: everyone in the room observes a different view even though all eyes are examining the same five fingers and palm.\nThe stage presence of May's other neighbor, Alice, performed by junior and BPP Ensemble of Artists member Joanne Dubach, encourages audience members to break free from their emotional slumber that was created during many moments of depressed thought and disabled action. \nLoose talk during intermission included a critique of the actors' Brooklyn accents, but this reviewer did not pay much attention because the play asked audience members to question our prejudices of "good" and "bad" when projecting our moral and ethical quandaries onto all our neighbors.\n"Housewives of Mannheim" explored the themes of independent womanhood at the expense of domestic servitude during a time of significant reinvention of American women's role while the men were off fighting a war. \nAll of the characters lamented on what life might have involved if none of their husbands returned from battle, and May, in particular, often ponders if time is better spent by "not thinking at all."\nBy the end of the show, one main theme seemed to over arch the action: an American woman can find her own place in the world despite the stereotypical role of 1940s housewife.