Summer Shorts: Series B

B

The second installment of this year’s one-act play festival at 59E59 Theater B begins with a work by Share White (The True, The Other Place), and concludes with one by Neil LaBute (The Shape of Things, Reasons To Be Pretty). In between, we get a comedic piece by Nancy Bleemer (Centennial Casting) which will become part of a trilogy. In White’s piece “Lucky,” set in the late 1940’s, we meet Meredith (Christine Spang; The Drunken City), a war bride whose husband Phil (Blake DeLong; Illyria) has mysteriously not returned home after WWII. She knows only that, although uninjured, he had been in a hospital. When she learns that he has just returned to town, she rushes to his hotel room to confront him. For a long — too long — time, all she gets from the sullen Phil is one-word responses that do not explain why he had not returned or whether he planned to stay. The answer is not worth the wait. One annoying quirk is that Phil performs the entire play with shaving cream on his sideburns. The festival’s artistic director J.J. Kandel (Sparring Partner) directed. In “Providence,” Bleemer introduces us to Michael (Jake Robinson; Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) and Renee (Blair Lewin), a mostly happily married couple who are spending a sleepless night in the narrow bed of Michael’s childhood bedroom on the night before his sister's wedding. Their 3 a.m. conversation attracts the attention of Pauly (Nathan Wallace), the nervous groom-to-be, who seeks their advice on what married couples can talk about. Apparently his parents were not big on conversation. Pauly’s intrusion exposes a few fault lines in their marriage, but one has no doubt that all will be fine. The characters are likable and their comical situation is fun to watch. Ivey Lowe directed. LaBute’s “Appomatox” shows the playwright in much better form than he displayed in his three one-act plays last winter. We meet buttoned-down Caucasian Joe (Jack Mikesell; The Nap) and seemingly easy-going African-American Frank (Ro Boddie; Socrates) who get together weekly to have lunch and toss the ball. Joe shares his enthusiasm about Georgetown students’ vote to pay $27.20 in extra fees to atone for the university’s sale of 270 slaves. He is puzzled by Frank’s complete lack of enthusiasm and pushes him to explain his reasons. Their conversation gradually escalates into dangerous territory that casts doubt on the possibility of interracial understanding. LaBute builds the tension skillfully and all too convincingly. Duane Boutté's (LOL) direction is assured. It was by far the most substantive offering of this year’s festival. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord

C-

Primary Stages’ season opener at the Cherry Lane Theatre is this high-concept comedy of ideas by Scott Carter. The playwright’s main credentials are that he was a stand-up comedian and later a writer/executive producer for Bill Maher’s television show. The play’s concept sounds promising: Imagine Thomas Jefferson (Michael Laurence; Appropriate). Charles Dickens (Duane Boutté; Parade) and Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Thom Sesma; Pacific Overtures) locked together in a room for reasons they do not understand. They appear as they looked at the height of their careers, rather than at the time of death. When they realize that each wrote his own version of the gospel, they think their purpose must be to combine their efforts into a joint work. When that fails, each tries to persuade the other two of the superiority of his own version. Finally, it occurs to them that maybe their real task is to examine their lives and face up to the gaps between their writings and their behavior. It was only at that point, about an hour in, that the play came to life for me and I stopped struggling to stay awake. During their recriminations, poor Jefferson comes in for the roughest treatment. Neither the humor nor the lofty discourse engaged me much. Maybe I nodded off for a crucial moment that would have made all the difference. I doubt it. The production is on the lavish side: a gilded proscenium arch decorated with books frames a red velvet curtain which lifts to reveal Wilson Chin’s (Aubergine) minimalist set of a bare room with a metal table and two chairs. Words are occasionally projected on the back wall. The period costumes by David Hyman (The Treasurer) are excellent. Laurence has a quiet dignity as Jefferson, but Boutté’s Dickens is too much a caricature and Sesma’s Tolstoy barely registers. That this play attracted a director the caliber of Kimberly Senior (Disgraced, The Who and the What) makes me wonder what she saw in it that I missed. Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission.