By Ernest Kearney — Blind Spots by Colette Freedman is political, witty and confounding.
Gretchen Baxter (Veronica Wylie) is a liberal journalist who lives with Birdy (Koni McCurdy), — her ʹ60s, “Peace Corps” mother— is having an affair with her young, student intern Janna (Tamara Burgess), and is slowly losing her eyesight.
Freedman pumps in the conflict by having Kate (Lindsay McGee) Birdy’s other daughter, who is a conservative college president, issue a ban against gay marriage and threaten to expose Gretchen’s lesbian relationship with Janna and her encroaching blindness, which would lead to her losing a recent offer of a newspaper job.
Playwright, Colette Freedman
Just to be on the safe side, Freedman tosses in Birdy’s decision to recreate a ritual, in which she participated while in Africa, where the entire village would gather to partake of a local brew knowing that one of the drinks was a deadly poison.
Now, exactly what Freedman is getting at here is beyond me, and I’m afraid that director Constance Dalton-Pawle doesn’t help, any, in clarifying it.
The relationship between the two sisters, apparently never very healthy, turns downright deadly when Kate menaces Janna, resulting in a perplexing and murderous finale.
Freedman is playing, it seems, with the political tensions of the day, and the “blind spots” liberals and conservatives suffer from in regard to the logic upon which the opposition operates.
Undoubtedly, there is a point that Freedman is making, unfortunately, for me it came across as slightly less convoluted than an octopus in bondage.
Be that as it may, there are some excellent performances here. Wylie who was so memorable in last year’s Two Motherf**kers on a Ledge * 
* shows her remarkable finesse in tackling difficult roles. McCurdy instills sincerity into the mother who comes across as having gone off her meds. McGee manages a subtlety in her character that saves it from plunging into the abyss of caricature, and Michelle Pedersen is excellent as Frieda; a character I can see absolutely no justification in having in the play.
Freedman has written a very funny play, but, as far as I can fathom, a thematically futile one.
If it were not for the excellent performances, this wouldn’t be a GOLD MEDAL.
* * And yes, I still think it’s a horrible title.
♦ ♦ ♦
Blind Spots by Colette Freedman
Playing During
At
Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre
5636 Melrose Ave
For Show Information and Tickets Go To: http://hff18.org/5211
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