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In Two New Plays, Firebelly Productions Gets It Half Right
By Michael Toscano
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Firebelly Productions is offering two new one-act plays from local playwrights: David Cahill's quirky romantic comedy "Conversing Elevens" and Jonah Sea Knight's "Not So Soft," which is described as a psychological thriller but is actually more a "who cares" than a whodunit. The first play is an audience pleaser, while the second is a pleasure primarily for the actors, who get to showcase their versatility before befuddled viewers. | ||||
The Arlington theater company bills this as two world premieres, although a performance of "Conversing Elevens" was featured at the Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage New Play Festival last fall. Cahill has been associated with Firebelly Productions since its founding three years ago, primarily as an actor, and Knight is artistic director of New Play House in Frederick. It's notable that the actor has written a play that is both thought-provoking and entertaining, while the playwright has crafted a drama that focuses primarily on performance, at the expense of thematic focus. | ||||
In "Conversing Elevens," a couple (Ed Xavier, Sarah Imes) whose marriage is in jeopardy meets for a "special dinner" in a posh restaurant and ends up subjected to some unusual analysis and "treatment" by a perky waiter (Josh Drew), who seems to think he is a therapist in the mold of Sigmund Freud. One of the cleverest passages has the waiter, who calls himself Sigmund, of course, describing the restaurant dining experience strictly in terms of a doctor-patient relationship. As the couple bickers, leading one or the other to stalk out of the room, Sigmund secretly counsels the one who remains on unorthodox ways to understand and appreciate the other. Director Jessica Lefkow makes sure that it is broadly played for laughs, sitcom style. However, enough insight into the dynamics of relationships is explored and in such a fresh manner that there is actually some substance under the froth. | click the image to enlarge | |||
Played against a bare-bones scenic design consisting of a nicely appointed table flanked by a three-part screen and a large potted plant, from behind which Sigmund can view the fruits of his work, Xavier, Imes and Drew keep it sprightly and avoid overt sentimentality. Drew is enigmatic as the odd waiter, the friendly but officious manner slipping only briefly to display hurt feelings whenever he is treated as a mere waiter. Xavier gets laughs with a hangdog persona, while Imes's character has a harder edge. By the end of the 40 minutes we share with the couple, the audience sees them, singly and together, more clearly than they see themselves and Cahill leaves it for us to decide whether that's poignant or slightly bitter. | ||||
Unfortunately, by the time we clearly see the two (and then some) characters in Knight's "Not So Soft," we've lost both patience and interest in them. When we first meet Coie (Imes), she is an anxious housewife being interviewed in a stark interrogation room by police officer Riley (Xavier) about the murder of her husband. She's obviously a troubled woman, the cause seemingly preceding her husband's demise. Officer Riley moves gently through his questions, and all seems routine until the two are suddenly different characters in a strangely subdued flashback. | ||||
Before long, Imes is slipping among a series of characters, Xavier less so, often so seamlessly that it takes a while for the audience to catch up. Directed again by Lefkow, the actors skillfully surf Knight's murky script until it dawns that the playwright seems to be employing a hackneyed soap opera device. But that's just his setup to a twist that creates a nice moment at the finale, although by this point it's still a twist of a lemon.
© 2005 The Washington Post
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This short evening offers two one-act plays.
Conversing Elevens is by David Cahill, a recent graduate of American
University who appeared in previous Firebelly productions of
Butterflies Are Free, Of Mice and Men and Waiting for Godot. Not So
Soft is by Jonah Sea Knight, Artistic Director of Frederick,
Maryland's New Play House. Both are somewhat under written, or at
least under polished, but each offers an intriguing concept and then
develops it clearly.
Storyline: In Conversing Elevens a
psychoanalyzing waiter named Sigmund gets his customers deeper and
deeper into trouble until things are so bollixed up he finds it best
to simply leave. In Not So Soft a policeman is interrogating a
female suspect in what seems a familiar scene until first the
policeman morphs into the husband in the suspect's recitation of
events, and then the suspect morphs into the character of her
supposed alibi. Firebelly is an intriguing company, inspiring and at
the same time relying on the fire in the belly of young talent
burning for the opportunity to show their stuff. Up to now the young
talent involved has been on stage performing the works of
established quality by John Steinbeck, Leonard Gershe, Samuel
Beckett and Ken Ludwig. Here they entrust works by young talent to
the performance skills of a trio of equally new performers. The
results are less impressive but not necessarily unsatisfying.
Josh Drew provides the most highly polished
performance of the trio. That may be because he is given the most
outgoing character to portray, the amateur psychologist of a waiter
who takes a maritally challenged couple under his care until the
mischief he stirs up gets so out of hand it is easier just to give
up and leave. The role provides many opportunities for comedy and he
exploits them effectively. More earnest is Sarah Imes who plays the
comedy of the first piece a tad too seriously, but hits a nice
stride in the post-intermission drama. Plastic faced Ed Xavier finds
just the right tone for most of his line readings in both pieces but
in between the lines there is a certain let down, a lack of
precision to his performance in both the comic first act and in the
more dramatic character shifting whodunit after intermission.
The
entire production sits lightly on the stage at Theater on the Run
which is a good thing for the company, because when the run here is
completed, they have to pack it all up and carry it half a world
away. The company has been invited to perform the two pieces at the
2005 Faust Festival in Hong Kong from June 9 to 18. With just one
screen, one plant, one table, two chairs, one table cloth, two table
settings and an ashtray, they shouldn't have to pay excess baggage
charges on the flight over.
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*** Firebelly Productions is supported by Arlington County through the Arlington Commission for the ARTS and the Cultural Affairs Division of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Resources. *** |
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Copyright © 2005 Firebelly Productions. All rights reserved. Designed by David Cahill. |
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