A Brave Look Into the Rearview Mirror at An Other Theatre Company’s How I Learned to Drive

By Susannah Whitman

Although the script is 20 years old, An Other Theatre Company’s production of How I Learned to Drive remains so painfully relevant that it could easily have been written this year. Paula Vogel’s honest and powerful play, which explores themes of sexual abuse, incest, pedophilia, and misogyny, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1998.

An Other Theatre Company produces scripts that are rarely done in Provo, Utah. But they aren’t just being edgy for the sake of being edgy. They are telling fiercely relevant stories that desperately need to be told. As their lobby display reminds us, in the United States, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18. Utah’s statistic is three times higher.

Under the direction of Liz Golden, How I Learned to Drive tells the story of a girl nicknamed Li’l Bit (Cathy Ostler), and her troubling relationship with her Uncle Peck (Chelsea Hickman), from childhood into college. The story is told through the metaphor of learning how to drive, in short scenes, out of order, and with an ensemble of three women playing multiple roles. Golden incorporates stylized movement in the show—not quite choreography, but something beyond blocking—something we can call dance. The show opens with the five women moving boxes on the set—boxes which clearly become increasingly heavier. I watched them and thought, “Look at what we’re all carrying.” Sexual assault isn’t something one can put down easily. We pass the pain and weight of it to one another.

It is fitting that the story is told by five women. Statistically speaking, one or two of them are likely survivors of sexual assault themselves (although I’d hazard a guess that the statistic is higher). Li’l Bit’s story is a woman’s story, so it’s only fitting that women should tell it. Each actress is able to find and bravely embrace both the humor and heartbreak in the script.

The role of Li’l Bit is a challenging one, and Ostler slides effortlessly into each scene. The actress must be able to address the audience directly, participate in each scene, and play an age range of eleven to early twenties. Ostler’s shifts in voice and physicality to portray each age are especially notable.

Hickman does an excellent job of finding the complexity in the difficult character of Uncle Peck. It would be an easy role if the man was simply a sinister, distant relative with evil intentions.; however, sexual abuse is rarely carried out by such villains. More often, it’s carried out by people we trust, even people we love. Hickman’s performance allows us to both sympathize with and despise Uncle Peck. He is a man who is both caring and sinister. He gaslights and manipulates those around him, but the play also allows us to see the ways in which the entire situation is complicated.

As the “male chorus,” playing a variety of roles, Kaitlin Lemon is incredibly compelling. Each character she plays is distinct from the others, and she is fully committed to each. Angela Nibley also does excellent work as the “female chorus,” and her series of drunk monologues as Li’l Bit’s mother, giving her advice in the form of “A Mother’s Guide to Social Drinking” is especially memorable. Toria Truax-Jones completes the cast as the “teenage chorus,” and her brash and humorous performance as Li’l Bit’s grandmother is one of the highlights of the show.

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Visually speaking, the set (designed by Casey Price, with props by Taylor Jack Nelson) is filled with the “stuff” of Li’l Bit’s memories. A dotted line outlines the entire set, reminding the audience of the median on a road. The true star (almost literally speaking) of the set design is the stunning night sky mural by Lyndee Baumann (If she was willing, I’d let her come paint the exact thing on my bedroom walls). The mural comes to life under the beautiful and creative lighting design of Jill Loveridge, who incorporates traditional stage lights and unconventional lighting sources like flashlights.

Costumes and makeup by Mel Howarth are simple and fitting, and Kacey Spadafora’s sound design adds the finishing touches to the production. The soundtrack is mostly of romantic hits from the 1960s. The use of these upbeat songs has two powerful effects. The first is that it sends us back in time to Li’l Bit’s childhood. The other is that their innocence creates a startling contrast to the subject matter of the play. Childhood should be as innocent as a doo-wop song about young love, but Li’l Bit’s childhood has moments of enormous trauma and pain, and that juxtaposition is powerful.

In a play about sexual abuse, there are moments, and even entire scenes, that address the issue directly. But it’s done so in just an oblique enough way to not be sensational. There is never any nudity, and for the most part, everything is merely suggested. But it is all the more effective for this. In every scene, it’s clear enough what is going on, and it is profoundly powerful.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said that art is the mirror that allows us to face the Medusa without turning to stone. In the case of An Other Theatre Company’s production of How I Learned to Drive, that mirror is the rearview mirror of a car, adjusted by Li’l Bit, scene by scene, as we follow her story. It’s a story that’s happened tens of thousands of times, to tens of thousands of people. As an audience, seeing this story on stage allows us to face it without turning to stone. It allows us to face the trauma of sexual abuse and, filled with hope and solidarity, be brave enough to say both “me too” and “time’s up.”

Content advisory: language, sexuality, adult themes

An Other Theater Company presents How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel
An Other Theater Company, 1200 Towne Centre Blvd, Provo, UT 84601 (located in the Provo Towne Centre Mall, 2^nd floor, next to Dillard’s)
Friday-Saturday, June 15 – July 7 7:30 PM
Tickets:  $14 online, $17 at the door, available online or at the door
How I Learned to Drive Facebook Event