Necessary Targets

A play about Bosnian women in a refugee camp has got to be sad and NECESSARY TARGETS is. Of course Eve Ensler’s new play, for both its virtues and its flaws, will always suffer by comparison to the playwright’s seminal work THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES. NECESSARY TARGETS is not the same…neither a peak experience nor a comedy.

It is a political play in so far as it puts women at the forefront of what is typically a male adventure. But some insight into the war in Bosnia would have been welcome. The story plays out as a sort of romance, self-consciously staged in a refugee camp where everyone participates in the real life psychodrama.

And who is officiating, but a NYC Bendel’s bred psychotherapist with designer luggage. Her sidekick, a younger more ruthless version of herself with a tape recorder, and their subjects, constitute the entire cast of characters.

As the therapist Shirley Knight’s performance is rewarding because it is self-revealing. The other actresses, too, command our attention. In fact, they are the saving grace to this production, especially Diane Venora as the Bosnian doctor, as it is her transformation that brings this play to its touching conclusion.

That’s This Week Off-Broadway. I’m Isa Goldberg.