In ‘Ganesh,’ two American women search for inner peace in India

There are hundreds of great quotes about the power of travel. But in thinking about Terrence McNally’s “A Perfect Ganesh” — the second of three plays that comprise Eclipse Theatre’s current season devoted to the prolific playwright — it is this one, by Anais Nin, that seems most appropriate: “We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.”

Katherine Brynne (Jeannie Affelder, an actress of palpable intelligence, and capable of suggesting a luminous interior life), and Margaret Civil (Elaine Carlson, fearless in her portrayal of a woman not easy to like) are the two affluent, middle-aged women at the center of McNally’s play which is now receiving a superbly acted production, directed by Steven Fedoruk.

Though hardly ideal traveling companions, they fly off to India for a couple of weeks, leaving their husbands behind in Greenwich, Connecticut. And as we soon learn, both women, in their very different ways, are trying to come to terms with the emotional turmoil of their lives.

Guiding them, and at times unnerving them, is Ganesha (Michael Harris, the droll and graceful “magician,” heavily masked in gold). The popular four-armed Indian god with the elephant’s head lets us know he is the deity “who is everywhere.” And intersecting with the women at many points all along the way is the Man (Phil Higgins, who triumphs in this transformational challenge that requires him to play about a dozen wildly different roles, from fellow tourists to hotel staff, husbands and sons).

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The essential nature of the two women, if not the full reason for their trip, is established right from the start. Katherine is a searcher, hungry for adventure and change, with a literate mind and a penchant for losing things. Without giving too much away here, it should be said that she also has lost the child closest to her heart — a gay son she only too late realized she betrayed in a crucial way.

Margaret is the classic mix of obnoxious, privileged tourist and nervous wreck. She is fearful of anything outside her comfort zone, and India is definitely outside that zone. As it turns out, her greatest fear is the sense that she has lost her youth and the interest of her husband. And she has other secrets, too.

As the two women visit all the tourist sites — from Bombay, Jaipur and the Ganges to the Taj Mahal — it is Katherine who ventures beyond the guides. She has challenged herself to “kiss a leper,” a sort of redemptive act for rejecting her son’s homosexuality. Written in 1993, about a decade into the AIDS crisis, the metaphor might be understandable, but also objectionable to those on both sides of the equation. So is Katherine’s racism, incited by another loaded choice on McNally’s part.

“A Perfect Ganesh” has many beautiful and moving scenes, but it also can be more than a little heavy-handed, and its ending not only neglects to deal with a crucial medical crisis faced by Margaret, but seems just a little too neat all around. Yet the actors (aided and abetted by Mike Winkelman’s elegant set, Mike Smith’s lighting, the costumes of Zachery Alexander and Rachel Lambert, and Cooper Forsman’s sound design), deftly manage to dance around most of these problems. And along the way, the women clearly discover other aspects of their souls.

NOTE: The final production in the 2015 McNally season will be “The Lisbon Traviata,” to be directed by Steve Scott. Performances begin Nov. 5.