If you’re seeking a hopeful message to carry you through the holidays, look no further than David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Ripcord.” The comedy, running off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club through December 6, might force you to take a second look at your crotchety and bitter old Aunt Bea sitting across from you at the Thanksgiving table.Your Aunt Bea would have a lot in common with Abby, who lives in sour, if resigned, discontentment at an assisted living facility. She’s a brutally frank old bag who’s none too happy when her new roommate turns out to be Marilyn, a chipper retiree who can’t stop haranguing her about making the most of their golden years. Both make claims that lead to a wager: Marilyn says that she never gets angry; Abby that she never gets scared. If one can make the other crack in this regard, then they win the right to dictate the terms of their living arrangements.Thus ensues a series of hilarious — and cruel — episodes including a skydiving incident that gives the play its title and a dredging up of past traumas that have scarred both women. David Hyde Pierce has directed the production, starring Holland Taylor as the dyspeptic Abby and Marylouise Burke as the indefatigable Marilyn.The director recently spoke to ARTINFO about the seemingly impermeable defenses we build around ourselves, and how a well-placed fusillade can blow them apart.What struck you about the play when you read it?That here was a work that treated women of a certain age with such respect. They’re never condescended to even while there is so much humor in the emotional territory of the play. In rehearsal, we learned early on that contrary to what the women say about themselves, Marilyn harbors a deep, deep anger, and Abby has deep, deep fears. It’s a conflict in an assisted living facility but what they’re really fighting about is what kind of a world are we going to live in? The play could easily take place in a summer camp or a high school.What makes this a fair fight between the two of them?At first, we think Abby, who is tough, no-nonsense, and determined has the upper hand over Abby, who is sweet, light, and wouldn’t hurt a fly. But neither have a corner on cruelty and neither have a market on vulnerability. They have equal parts of strength and weakness. Abby is uncensored in her vitriol. Was she always that way or it that a function of age?There’s a theory that as we age, we become a distilled essence of who we are, for better or worse. That’s true of these characters and their intensified personalities, which make them more theatrical. It’s true that Abby will say anything but she can take it as well. She’s so obnoxious to Scotty [the employee] that he finally rips into her after which he feels bad. She says, “Don’t apologize. I like the truth.” Life is a dark place full of pain and she won’t pretend otherwise.But she’s stumbling in that dark, isn’t she? Especially with her estranged son?Abby just feels so betrayed over the years that she can’t believe that he can change and so she’s walled herself off from him. She just doesn’t want to open herself up to that hurt.What makes her give life a second chance?Marilyn says something in the play that I find profoundly moving: “You can’t give up on people. Once you do, it’s all over.” It’s something that all of us do all the time. Every time we pass a homeless person on the street. In order to live in this city, you just can’t allow yourself to see and hear everything. That’s a short-term solution but the cost of what you lose is just too great.“Ripcord” brought to mind such classic comedies as “The Odd Couple” and “You Can’t Take It with You.”Actually I feel it’s the opposite. What’s incredible is the breadth of David’s imagination and the wild places to which he takes these characters, including a haunted house and jumping out of an airplane, which is a metaphor for the play. Life is one long fall to certain death and you have to pull the ripcord so that it can slow you down and give you time to look around. There is this absolute craziness without ever straying from the real hard core of the play.Do you really think people can change?Yes. It’s hard because so much of our insecurity is masked by grabbing onto frozen ideas of who we are and who other people are. But these are just constructions, the armor we put on, and they can be taken off. It’s Abby who changes the most. She’s completely closed herself off and she realizes that the cost of doing that is greater than not. She realizes that shutting herself off doesn’t make her happier or safer. Is that miraculous?I wouldn’t call it miraculous but it is wonderful. What’s surprising is that it happens in an assisted living facility. It’s not about fragility. It’s not about throwing people away at the end of their lives. On the contrary, Abby and Marilyn are two of the most vital, funny, and dangerous characters you are likely to meet on any stage.
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