Audrey Cefaly Digs Deep in the Bayou for Love

by Mary Lou Herlihy

On a small fishing boat, stuck in the dark waters of the bayou, two women wallow together, forever. Could these ill-suited lovers be any more lost?

In “The Gulf, An Elegy,” Audrey Cefaly chronicles a dangerous codependent relationship on the brink. “The Gulf” also reflects our country’s volatile social divisions. Cefaly’s two-person play brilliantly employs humor and wit to hold up a dark mirror for us. Hilarious, tragic, moving.

Two lesbian lovers, fishing in the shallows, banter and bicker with lots of laugh out loud moments. Kendra (mesmerizing Amy Meyers) and Betty (passionate Laura Domingo) fluctuate from genuine connection to crushing hopelessness. Kendra, commanding and silent, occupies the stern. While Betty, restless and needy, reclines in the bow. In mesmerizing moments, they meet in the middle.

Meyers and Domingo form a brilliant duo, two parts of an elusive and conflicted love. With seething chemistry between them, both actors are in the zone. Their physically demanding moments, beautifully staged, flow like a tragic dance.

Director Tracy Ward’s fluid pacing works magic in the cozy, green-lit, immersive southern setting. Betty and Kendra move naturally inside the impressive wooden framed boat—floating in watery light. In the bayou’s lush hanging moss and eerie lighting, we can hear the water lapping. Their contrasting southern accents take us to another world.

Kendra leaps overboard and Betty gets pushed, but there’s no escape. They wait, they struggle, they squabble. Kendra proclaims, “We already know the point cuz there’s no new points only old ones old old old as SHIT….”

Gossipy Betty claims that Kendra is cold and lacks curiosity: “You’re like a neanderthal, without any of the social skills.” But stoic Kendra finds Betty tedious and arrogant, telling endlessly talkative Betty to just “Shut up!”

Hurt by Kendra’s callousness, Betty retreats to her self-help book “What Color is Your Parachute?” Betty aims to fix Kendra, to shape her into a citified person because Betty yearns to escape and go to school. But can she? Will she?

Both characters struggle for meaning in a world that insists that as women, lesbians, and poor southern folk, they are unimportant.

These two women hold our attention, skillfully. Kendra moves slowly, intentionally, dressed in white knee length boots, loose-fitting cargo shorts, and a T-shirt. Her masculine stoicism conceals vulnerability. She moves about her fishing business with quiet confidence, rarely looking at Betty. Her measured words sound sarcastic, often cruel.

By contrast, Betty in her flip flops, sexy cutoff jeans, tank top, and girly red handbag seems dressed for the mall. She rarely stops moving …. or talking. Betty’s hilarious ‘crazy cat lady’ stories conceal her feelings. In Kendra, she’s searching for an authority to challenge—maybe destroy.

But the gulf opens wide. We feel the pain of hearts that stopped beating for one another. We feel the scars of past hurts, never fully healed. We feel the passion, once felt, now habituated and empty.

Yes, we ARE stuck, together, so we BETTER figure out how to navigate this shaky, flimsy boat ride. Cefaly’s stellar play, acted with commitment and chemistry, brings out the existentialist in each of us. “The Gulf” is a profound and luminous dramatic event.

“The Gulf, An Elegy” by Audrey Cefaly, directed by Tracy Ward, lighting by Sophia Craven, sound by Alex Fakayode, set & props by Jenna Forder, costumes by Nia Jacobs, dramaturgy & dialect by Carolyn Messina.

—at New Conservatory Theatre Center, San Francisco. Info nctcsf.org – to November 24, 2024.

Cast: Laura Domingo (Betty) & Amy Myers (Kendra).

Banner photo: Laura Domingo & Amy Meyers. Photos by Lois Tema