Line #15 Theatre/OnTheVerge


1	''On the Verge, or the Geography of Yearning'' is a 1986 stage play by Eric Overmyer, best known for his work on ''Series/LawAndOrder'', ''Series/TheWire'', and Series/{{Treme}}. It tells the story of three [[LadyOfAdventure Victorian women explorers]], each with their own specialty, who set off in 1888 to chart Terra Incognita, an unknown and mysterious land. Mary Baltimore is the oldest, an anthropologist whose travels are mostly in Africa. Fanny Cranberry is writing up her journey for the tabloid "True Trek"; she is the most conservative and the only married member of the party. Alexandra Cafuffle is the youngest, an aspiring lyricist whose specialty is cold terrain, especially Tibet.
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3	They meet natives including a German-accented cannibal, a yeti, a Beat poetry-spouting Troll (all played by the same actor); and encounter new objects and vocabulary as they travel through time and space, discovering the ability to "osmose" the meaning of these new terms. Eventually they reach civilization again, having arrived back in America in 1955.
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5	''On the Verge'' is a celebration of [[ReferenceOverdosed feminism, language, history, and pop culture]]. Not to be confused with ''Film/WomenOnTheVergeOfANervousBreakdown''.
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8	!!On the Verge contains examples of:
9	* AdventurersClub: Fanny is a member of Explorer's Club, although the real one wasn't founded until 1904, and probably didn't allow women in its early days. (The play already has TimeTravel, so why not, really?)
10	* AirGuitar: Alexandra does this in the 1950s while still in Victorian attire, to herald the coming of Rock and Roll.
11	* AmbiguouslyGay: there's more than a few hints that Mary is a lesbian.
12	* AntiquatedLinguistics: sometimes bordering on SesquipedalianLoquaciousness. Your program for the show may contain a glossary.
13	* ArcWords:
14	** Vaya Con Dios!
15	** On the Verge
16	** [[UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower I Like Ike]]
17	* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
18	** Hand mixers were invented in 1857, and were a century old by the 1950s. They would not be alien to Victorian gentlewomen from the 1880s.
19	** Cream Cheese has existed [[OlderThanTheyThink since the 16th Century]], and had been made in Philadelphia since the 1820s. As with hand mixers, they would not be alien to Victorian Gentlewomen from the 1880s.
20	* BadassBiker: the Troll
21	* {{Beatnik}}: the Gorge Troll, with a few dashes of '50s greaser and Creator/MarlonBrando
22	* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: there's a snowball-throwing baby yeti in one scene
23	* BreakingTheFourthWall: most of the scenes end in a journal entry, where one of the ladies addresses the audience and summarize or foreshadow events.
24	* CatchPhrase: Mary: "Not annoying." Alex: "I'll follow suit."
25	* CoolestClubEver: Nicky's Peligrosa Paradise Bar & Grill
26	* CoolHelmet: The ladies wear pith helmets, as any proper explorer should.
27	* CosmicHorrorStory: There are eldritch undertones to the play, how [[EldritchLocation simply being in Terra Incognita and being able to see the future is able to alter their mannerisms and personalities]], and the 1950s that they wind up in might be a LotusEaterMachine imitation of the real thing rather than the genuine Fifties.
28	* DragonLady: Madame Nhu.
29	* [[DramaticNecklaceRemoval Dramatic Ring Removal]]: Fanny after Mr. Coffee informs her that her husband Grover had her legally declared dead, and he committed suicide some 19 years after that.
30	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Alexandra and Fanny [[GoingNative go native]] and [[IChooseToStay remain in the 1950s]], possibly trapped in an EldritchLocation LotusEaterMachine that transcends the borders of space-time (rather than being in the genuine 1950s), and Mary continues exploring Terra Incognita without them.]]
31	* EldritchLocation: Terra Incognita and its unknown mechanics of Chronokinesis.
32	* FamilyVersusCareer: Fanny's long absences put a strain on her relationship with her husband Grover. There seems to be a great deal of tenderness between them, but they have very little in common.
33	* TheFifties: Where the ladies end up. "Perhaps 1955 is the apotheosis of the future."
34	* ForeignQueasine: Fanny delights in it in a monologue about the AdventurersClub, Mary declares manioc tastes "at best like the bottom of a budgie's cage", and Alex describes Tibetan cuisine as "not haute." A scene titled "Native Chop" introduces the cannibal Alphonse.
35	* GoingNative: [[spoiler: Alex and Fanny do this in the 1950s.]]
36	* TheGhost: [[UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower President Eisenhower]], who is apparently a regular customer of Nicky Paradise.
37	* TheHecateSisters: Alex (maiden), Fanny (mother), Mary (crone)
38	* IChooseToStay: [[spoiler: the ultimate fate of Alex and Fanny]].
39	* ImAHumanitarian: Alphonse.
40	* TheIngenue: Alex, although she has more depth than the StockCharacter and a bit of a rock and roll personality-- making her a little more spirited than ingenues usually are.
41	* InscrutableOriental: Mme Nhu, and her fortune cookies.
42	* JiveTurkey: Gus and the Troll; Alex embraces slang.
43	* LadyOfAdventure
44	* LeastRhymableWord: dirigible, dirigible, dirigible!
45	* LotusEaterMachine: The 1950s Suburbia at the end of the play has hints of this.
46	* LoungeLizard: Nicky Paradise, who is a genuinely charming love interest, not a sleaze.
47	* MediumAwareness: The Gorge Troll remarks that he and the three gentlewomen are in a "costume drama", and there is a subsequent jab at theater.
48	* PluckyGirl: Alex: "high adventure and stupefying risk are my metier."
49	* ProperLady: "The civilizing mission of Woman is to reduce the amount of masculinity in the world, not add to it by wearing trousers."
50	* {{Psychopomp}}: Mr. Coffee, who is "not exclusively of this era" and informs Fanny of Grover's death.
51	* PurpleProse: Gradually supplanted by '50s slang as the play progresses.
52	* RealWomenDontWearDresses: Subverted into "{{Proper lad\|y}}ies don't wear trousers," while lampshading the DoubleStandard of the straight trope.
53	* ReferenceOverdosed
54	* RhymesOnADime: The Troll, occasionally Alex.
55	* RockAndRoll: Alex discovers this is her calling; she does AirGuitar of a tune by Creator/TheBeachBoys.
56	%%* RomancingTheWidow: Nicky to Fanny.
57	%%* SharpDressedMan: Mr. Coffee
58	* ShoutOut: There's a ton of historical allusions (including a RunningGag on who's the current President), and pop culture references to Advertising/BurmaShave, ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}'', Willy and the Hand Jive and everything in between.
59	** [[ShoutOut/ToShakespeare Shout-Out: To Shakespeare]]: Alex gets the [[Theatre/TheTempest "O brave new world"]] line and is promptly lampshaded as a plagiarist by Fanny. Although Fanny herself quotes Theatre/{{Hamlet}} in an earlier scene. Mr. Coffee paraphrases part of [[Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice Portia's "quality of mercy"]] speech.
60	* SpeakingLikeTotallyTeen: Occasionally when Fanny or Mary osmose a hip reference and don't understand it.
61	* SpiritedYoungLady: Alex most prominently, although all the women have elements of this.
62	* StylishProtectionGear: as proper Victorian ladies, they explore the jungle in dresses, petticoats, and corsets. Alex would rather wear trousers; the others will have none of that nonsense.
63	* ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld: Mary: "There are two sorts of folks in the world. The sort you eat with, and the sort you drink with. Cannibals you drink with."
64	--> [Later that scene] '''Fanny:''' Yes, Mary, there are two sorts of people in the world. There are cannibals-- and there are lunch.\
65	'''Mary:''' Fanny, you are a Social Darwinist." (ie, "[[Trivia/TheSocialDarwinist Eat or]] [[MultipleReferencePun be eaten]].")
66	* TimeTravel: [[InsistentTerminology Chronokinesis.]]
67	* TimeTravelTenseTrouble
68	* TimeTravellingLesbians: Mary, especially when the time the play was written (and Mary's time of origin) was not particularly lesbian-friendly: it may be using her visiting different periods and the various fantasy creatures in those in order to progress view of sexuality.
69	* TitleDrop: [[ArcWords Several times]] throughout the play, usually with relation to Mary. "On The Verge" is the title of the first scene; "The Geography of Yearning" is the [[BookEnds title of the last scene]].
70	* TitleIn: Every scene has a projected title, usually containing a {{pun}} (Native Chop) or [[ReferenceOverdosed a pop culture reference]] (In The Jungle, the Mighty Jungle).
71	* VerbalTic: Alex, using [[WordSaladHumor unusual random words]] as exclamations. For example, "Ow! Ligament, juicy Nordic, quiz!"
72	* YouAreWhoYouEat: Alphonse, the cannibal who gains the language and syntax of anyone he eats as "side effect." In this case, it was a [[CoolAirship dirigible pilot from Alsace-Lorraine]].

Context Theatre / OnTheVerge