"Am I bitter; am I judgmental?" questions or rather intones Sylvia Plath as she prowls around the stage with the intensity of a Greek Fury. In this bio-drama about the life of poetess Sylvia Plath, Angelica Torn is absolutely mesmerizing as she hacks away at the shambles of her marriage to fellow poet, the British born Ted Hughes.

Paul Alexander's solo show about this cult figure in the women's movement is unabashedly one-sided in its allegiances. Yet, despite being emphatically on Plath's side as we gain knowledge of their disintegrating marriage, he wisely refuses to let Plath off the hook. In her brutal self awareness, we learn of her adoration of her perfectionist father whom she could never please, her cold, withholding mother ("She insisted on calling me 'Sylvie' ", she spits out) whom she never really liked and her fierce ambition to be a famous writer. She accounts her intense carnal and intellectual attraction to Hughes and her slow methodical development into the better poet of the two ("He found his true calling in translations" she cackles mercilessly) with a lacerating honesty that keeps the play from becoming a Hughes diatribe. As she screams out late in the second act "I simply married my father!" with equal measures of self-revelation and self-disgust, the pain is so intense and heartfelt, we wince. By the time we reach her suicide (on a bitter cold February morning in 1962 via sticking her head in the oven), there is an almost palpable relief.

Angelica Torn's performance is simply phenomenal. Evolving from daddy's little girl to the self-absorbed Hughes' plaything to a self-discerning woman, Torn tears though the role with the strength and danger of a lioness. As she constantly primps with her 50's bouffant skirt and mini-sweater, her looks belies the growing consciousness within her. It's the edgy, sarcastic, razor-sharp voice that Torn uses that clues us into her feelings about the acid disclosures of her life. In essence, she's symbolically slashing her wrists all evening. It's a ferocious tour-de-force that lingers in the mind long after one leaves the theater. Ms. Torn has dedicated her performance to her mother, the legendary Geraldine Page. A more fitting tribute could not be imagined.

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