Masculine Acts /Anxious Encounters: Sabina Berman’s Entre Villa, yuna mujer d e s n u d a % Sharon Magnarelli QuiNNiPiAC College In Act Like AMan (1995), Robert Vorlicky argues that men—at least male characters in male-cast, realist plays—act as they do, a) because of the masculine models imposed upon them apriori, and b) in response to the behavior and reactions of other males with whom they share the scenic space. While Ido not dispute Vorlicky’s conclusions, Iwould note that in limitinghimselftomale-castdramawrittenbymaleplaywrights,Vorlicky elidesmorethan50%ofthepopulationofthisplanet—women.Clearly, since women cannot be avoided at all times, male behavior must somehow additionallyrespondtothosefemales,albeitconsciouslyorunconsciously, positivelyornegatively. SabinaBerman’sEntreVillayunamujerdesnuda[BetweenVillaanda Naked Wowaw] (1993) recognizes this not-so-silent majority of women ^d proffers amore comprehensive look at gender performativity.* In its tamatization of masculinity as the citation or re-performance of previously author(iz)edperformances(literalizedandembodiedinthehistoricalctitious character of Pancho Villa), the play moves well beyond the orlickystudythatpostdatesitbytwoyears.AlthoughBermanpresents both males and females as enacting gender performances, Iconcentrate on AemasculineperformancesandthescenesprotagonizedbyPanchoVilla.^ shall Mgue that within the representational economy of the work. Villa, whomightbeconsideredthe“original”model,shouldbereadasacitational performance,particularlyinthepresenceofwomen.^Furthermore,eachof isencounterswithawomanismarkedbyanxiety,butnotHaroldBloom’s anxietyofinfluence,forVillaseemsunconcernedaboutdenyinghismale predecessors.Onthecontrary,hisanxiety(likeAdrian’sintheframeplay) ISabouthowtoperformmasculinityappropriately(howtoaffirmone’s malepredecessorsaswellasone’smaledescendants)andhowtoperform an appropriate masculinity (how to placate one’s present audience). The frame drama centers on Gina and Adrian and their relationship predicated on alack of commitment. Their “modern” liaison proves to be highly conventional, however, limited to aseries of erotic trysts, contingent upon Adrian’s “urges,” which periodically bring him to her door. She discovers he is seeing another woman, and eventually falls in love with her 4 0 J Magnardli—Masculine Acts /Anxious Encounters 4 1 son’s friend, Ismael. When Adrian returns to her apartment in the last act, he transfers his desire to its new owner, Andrea, but finds he is unable to “perform” erotically. In agesture that historicizes gender identity, Berman intermeshes these events with an embedded drama starring Pancho Villa, acharacter from the monograph Adrian is writing. Like the frame drama, the embedded Villa drama comprises four acts. Two of those stage direct encoimters with women. In Act IVilla is served tea by Mujer after Gina and Adrian disappear into the bedroom. In Act II he visits his mother to give her the “gifts” he has stolen from other women. He seeks but is denied her blessing. In both of these acts, Berman literalizes but chronologically inverts the notion of citationality by having \fiUa reenact Adrian and/or Gina’s words rather than vice versa. Although in Act IWla appears to act independently, when the bed in which Adrian and Gina are resting is rolled out onto the stage, we find his actions enact their words. In Act II the citationality of Villa’s performance is more overt insofar as Gina is typing Adrian’s manuscript as the characters from it appear on stage. When she stops typing, they freeze in place. In this manner Berman dramatizes that the citations (or, in Butler’s terms, the regulatory practices) fimetion both forward and backward, producing not only the citational performance but also what we understand as its source. In the other two acts. Villa interacts with women only indirectly, through Adrian. InAct III he unsuccessfully coaches the history professor on how to reconquer Gina. Rather than Adrian’s words influencing Villa’s actions here. Villa’s “words” influence Adrian’s actions. But the question is, to what extent are Villa’s “words” Adrian’s words—^which is the original and which is the copy?Again, Berman’s point is that without the “copy” the “original” would not exist, or at least would not be framed and comprehended in the same way; the “original” would not be authorized as amodel.^ In Act IV Villa is silent. He appears only after Adrian and Andrea disappear into the bedroom,mountedonahuge,expandingcanonthatmarksAdrian’serotic failure offstage. Thus, the final act cites and literalizes the metaphoric link between gun and penis while it humorously debunks that metaphor, by signaling not the similarities between the linked terms, but their differences: the gun is an instrument of death, while the penis is one of potential life; thegunmaybeeternallypotent,butmenarenot(anymorethanfemales are...