With John Olive’s Standing On My Knees, the Saint Louis
University Theatre has made a superb production of a
challenging–and sometimes flawed–stage play. With two strong
leads who only strengthen with each new scene, Standing is a
heartbreaking tale of a woman who wants both to foster a healthy
romance and delve back into the darkest recesses of her self.

The production, which will run through this Sunday, tells the
story of Catherine (Magan Wiles), a poet who has just left a mental
hospital, where she was treated for another resurgence of her
schizophrenia.

As she tries to assimilate back into society, she is accompanied
by her editor, Alice (Jen Theby), and her therapist, Joanne
(Bethany Umbach). Robert (Robert Thibaut), whom Catherine meets at
one of Alice’s parties, rounds out the cast as the poet’s love
interest.

All four performances were jittery as they began. It was hard to
tell if Catherine is merely shaken after her transition back into
city life, but Wiles seemed overly-nervous in her first few
scenes.

She soon smooths out, though–in part because of Robert, to be
sure–even though the Thorazine Catherine takes every night before
she goes to bed puts her to sleep for a good 12 hours, during which
she experiences auditory hallicinations typical among
schizophrenics and wakes up frightened and confused.

Thibaut takes a little longer to develop Robert, who is far too
nice to harbor a temper that apparently cost him his marriage, and
leads him to nearly strike Catherine at least once.

The playwright is most likely the one to fault for this gap in
Robert’s personality, but it’s nonetheless hard to believe Robert
when he finally erupts. The switch from nice guy to Incredible Hulk
is so swift one might think he should be treated for manic
depression.

Yet where his rage detracts from his character, Robert’s genteel
love for Catherine bolsters it–and his performance in the play’s
final scenes, where his love for and fear of Catherine swirl
together, are the heart of the production’s strong finish.

Alice is a crucial character, playing the role of larger
society: She cannot cope with Catherine’s illness and prefers to
ignore it rather than deal with it in a healthy way. Yet Theby is
unable to fully develop the middle ground between the facade of the
boisterous businesswoman and the guts of a helpless, broken
woman.

Umbach is playing a two-dimensional character, of course, as
Catherine’s psychiatrist; but her delivery is far too stilted to
even fill the roll of the resented shrink.

Catherine desperately wants more and more to write, yet to do
so, she feels she must shed her medication and plunge back into
herself–which could provoke her schizophrenia.

The play’s challenge came mostly for Wiles, it seems, who has
clearly done her research.

At a discussion after Sunday’s performance, Wiles drew the
praise of Charles Conway, M.D., an assistant professor of
psychiatry, who said he found her performance accurate and her
personal knowledge of the illness impressive.

Wiles explained that she herself had concluded Catherine’s
behavior to be more typical of someone suffering from manic
depression, rather than schizophrenia. Another one of the script’s
flaws, Catherine is an atypical schizophrenic at best, yet Wiles
pulls if off incredibly well.

Mark Wilson’s set, centered around Catherine’s one-room
apartment, is one of the most captivating elements of the
production. Constructed with a translucent drop that hangs in a
semi-circle around the center of the stage, the apartment, when
lit, is as whimsical and womb-like as the inside of a tree trunk
designed by Lewis Carroll; when the stage is dark, backlighting
(also by Wilson) beautifully carries the characters’ emotions
through scene transitions.

After its strong showing earlier this year with Steve Martin’s
dynamic comedy Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and this powerful
dramatic production, the University Theatre has truly shown the
depth and richness of its talents.