Something Clean

B

Roundabout Underground, the company’s new play initiative housed in the Black Box Theatre below the Laura Pels, fills the important function of introducing New Yorkers to new playwrights. Roundabout’s acute eye for new talent has launched the careers of Stephen Karam, Steven Levenson, Lindsey Ferrentino and Joshua Harmon, among others. Their latest offering is this absorbing three-actor drama by Selina Fillinger that examines the fallout of a sexual assault from an unusual vantage point, that of the perpetrator’s parents. Charlotte and Doug are a suburban couple whose college son Kai is currently in prison for a campus rape he committed while drunk. The leniency of his six-month sentence led to protests and brought unwanted notoriety into their comfortable lives. Doug (Daniel Jenkins; Oslo, Kid Victory) has taken refuge in his work. When we meet Charlotte (Kathryn Erbe; The Father, Checkers), she has presented herself as a would-be volunteer at an urban sexual assault center headed by a young gay black man, Joey (Christopher Livingston; Party People, Peerless). In a rather heavy-handed metaphor, she tells Joey that she is good at cleaning, particularly at removing stains. She hides her real identity and motivation from Joey and conceals her volunteer work from Doug. Over the next few months, the relationship between Charlotte and Doug grows increasingly distant while a friendship blossoms between Charlotte and Joey. Charlotte’s attempts to relieve her sense of guilt also include implausible late-night visits to a campus alley where she whips out her rubber gloves to tidy up the dumpsters. While there she meets a campus cop played by Jenkins and a drunk frat boy played by Livingston. The play, which rapidly alternates scenes between Charlotte and either Doug or Joey, leads to an inevitable climax when the three meet and Charlotte’s subterfuge is exposed. The acting is consistently strong, with Kathryn Erbe’s performance being especially powerful. Reid Thompson’s (Too Heavy for Your Pocket) set design locates the bedroom and part of the kitchen of the couple’s suburban home at one end of the rectangular stage with one wall of the assault center at the other end; the large table in the center is used to represent both places. The size of theater and the division of the audience into two facing sides increase the sense of intimacy. Valerie Therese Bart’s (Too Heavy for Your Pocket) costumes befit the characters well. Margot Bordelon’s (Do You Feel Anger?, Too Heavy for Your Pocket) direction is fluid and unfussy. While the plot has a few weak spots, the play is consistently absorbing and my overall reaction is quite positive. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.

Too Heavy for Your Pocket

B-

Roundabout Underground is presenting this flawed but interesting work by promising young playwright Jiréh Breon Holder. It is set in a poor rural black enclave of Nashville in 1961. We meet two young couples who have a very close friendship. The husbands have been best friends since they were ten and the wives are almost like sisters. Sally-Mae Carter (Nneka Okafor; Our Lady of Kibeho), about to graduate from beauty school, is pregnant. Her husband Tony (Hampton Fluker) has a past that includes philandering and gambling, but has been stirred by impending fatherhood to become a better man. Evelyn Bardon (Eboni Flowers) is a nightclub singer. Her husband Bowzie (Brandon Gill; Bella), intelligent but aimless, has just been accepted to Fisk University. Evelyn and Bowzie seem to be a most unlikely couple. During the long first act, we get to know the characters and the underlying problems in each marriage. When Bowzie decides to quit college and become a Freedom Rider, his decision puts a strain on all their relationships. The second act, while more dramatic, was also more disjointed. Some of the developments seemed forced and others seemed unlikely. The ending is rather flat. If you don’t already know about the Freedom Riders, you won’t get much background here. The actors are strong and quite plausible in their roles. Ms. Flowers has a lovely voice. The set by Reid Thompson (A Delicate Ship) features walls of wooden slats all around the theater and, for reasons I did not grasp, a grass floor throughout. The costumes by Valérie Thérèse Bart (Vanity Fair) are apt. Director Margot Bordelon (A Delicate Ship) would do well to tighten up the first act. All in all, it was a worthwhile but not wholly satisfactory experience. Running time: two hours ten minutes including intermission.

A Delicate Ship ***

The Playwrights Realm is presenting this intriguing new play by Anna Ziegler at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Sarah (Miriam Silverman), a social worker in her early 30s, and Sam (Matt Dellapina), a budding musician, have been a couple for several months. Their quiet Christmas Eve at Sarah’s apartment is interrupted by a sudden knock at the door. The uninvited guest is Nate (Nick Westrate), Sarah’s close friend since childhood. Bearing champagne and weed, Nate insinuates himself into their evening. Sam and Nate have neither met nor heard of each other before. Nate is an intensely self-centered overgrown child, filled with existential dread that the world existed before him and will go on after him. He has longed for Sarah since childhood as the only person who can save him and has showed up that night to persuade her to choose him. Like Icarus in Breugel’s famous painting, he fears that his suffering may go unnoticed. Each character breaks the fourth wall periodically to tell the audience about previous as well as future events. The urge to please one’s parents is a theme that recurs. The title comes from the image of time as a ship delicately navigating the shoals between past and future. The events of that evening have a profound effect on all three characters.The actors are all excellent, the set by Reid Thompson is evocative, the costumes by Sydney Maresca are fine and the direction by Margot Bordelon is smooth. The playwright is not always in full command of her material, but shows considerable promise. Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission.