"The Oldest Profession" in Galesburg

Five old hookers
Are sitting in the park.
None are even close
to hitting their mark.

The Madam is sweet
and nice to the core,
but death comes a calling
and then there were four.

It doesn't take much more imagination to see the pattern in Paula Vogel's THE OLDEST PROFESSION. A quick internet survey indicated that the play had an Off-Broadway production in 2004, but was actually written in 1988. Most of the jokes place the main action in the early 1980's during the Reagan/Carter era which, given Bill Clinton's expansion of the world's sexual vocabulary, seems a bit of a shame. The lack of sympathy and social support for aging women in a man's world is still a relevant topic, so I would think that the play would not be overly harmed by some judicious updating.

We saw it last night in the cramped third floor taproom at Cherry Street in Galesburg, IL. It was produced by the Prairie Players Civic Theatre and directed by an English teacher at Monmouth-Roseville HS--Melissa Agar. Agar noted in the publicity for the show that there are relatively few plays that offer five good roles for character actresses, so this piece, like Robert Harling's STEEL MAGNOLIAS, can allow some of the older women in a company to have a bit of the limelight even if they must play stereotypical hookers with hearts of gold on the far side of fifty.

As their clientele starts to pass over, our ladies of the night continue to bicker and pass over themselves one by one. Each gets a sexy makeover and a boa as they dance their way into a glowing white-light heaven that is supposedly the New Orleans bordello where they began their careers. The jokes become more strained and less funny as their numbers and their pickings dwindle. Ursula, the successor to the first Madame, loses the group's nest egg in an investment scheme and with constant landlord problems, and no social security or medical insurance, it's hard to keep making jokes about old guys who can't get it up. Vera, the last of the five left standing, is finally reduced at the end of the sixth scene to picking through a trash container for food. There is probably a lesson here, but we weren't much in the mood for it after over an hour and a half of pretty predictable repetition. Given that the characters don't quite have enough time or depth to get into your psyche, the suspense of who will be next to go just isn't enough to combat a hard folding chair and a peek-a-boo view of the stage from the unraked floor.

Director Agar does a good job of keeping things moving on the tightly cramped stage and Larry Diemer's simple, functional park bench setting is up to the job. He even manages a few lighting effects in a space that clearly comes with no technical accoutrements. The women in the cast display some nice and often quirky character delineation and all seemed to enjoy their turns.

Even if the space and the play's plot development were not top notch, the price was right, the beer was cold, and it was nice to see a Paula Vogel piece that was written before she hit her stride with THE BALTIMORE WALTZ and HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE. A rating of three 1/2 stars and thanks to the cast and crew of the Prairie Players Civic Theatre for a good value night out in Galesburg.