Jason, the scientist in crisis at the center of Daniel Povinelli's new play, Before You, is searching for an equation to unlock the mysteries of love. Jason's got all the components figured out, but he just can't quite get them to add up.
Before You as a whole suffers a similar problem. Directors Povinelli and local veteran Walter Brown have all the components right -- a very game cast of talented actors, a smartly designed and executed set and a warm-hearted story of love's redemptive power -- but the whole never measures up to the sum of its sometimes wonderful parts.
In short, Before You follows Jason, a scientist who's just left his job in pursuit of simpler pleasures (namely music). He's pressured by his boss, Marshall, to complete a secret project (of which the details, for me, remained fuzzy). Another colleage, Samantha, has left her husband and is hounding Jason for no-strings romance. But Jason has his eyes set on love with Helen, a girl from the coffee shop, and his pursuit of Helen is spurred on by his one-liner spouting friend George.
As Jason and Helen move towards love, Jason's grip on reality begins to falter, and fantasy versions of the principal charaters start showing up. The play slides back and forth from fantasy to reality,until love finally sets the world right again.
The cast, as a whole, does commendable work here. Bruce Coen and Kayla Lemaire both have tough assignments (their fantasy characters sometimes become nightmarish), and they handle it with panache. Lemaire in particular is fun to watch as the seductive Samantha. Jack Robertson handles the frenetic George with ease, and Povinelli does a good job as Jason under difficult circumstances (Povinelli steppedinto the role a week before opening).
The real delight here is Christy Leichty as Helen. Her performance was charmingly, radiantly real, and I was always eager to see her enter a scene. Her Helen was the kind of girl you'd believe could set a guy's world back on its axis.
The show is beautifully designed by Povinelli (and executed by Povinelli and Walter Brown), specifically a secret entrance I never saw coming. It's detailed and feels authentic-- something you don't always get with community theatre interior sets. The smart lighting design, which plays a major role in the communication of the narrative, is also effective.
But when it comes to the play itself, some elements are still in need of attention. The fantasy sequences, while not hard to figure out,sometimes feel awkwardly imposed on the play. The two worlds never mesh comfortably together, and in the show's final fantasy showdown,things veer tonally into areas the play hasn't prepared us for. The effect, for me, was distancing -- I wanted to connect to these people, but could never get a firm hold on who they were.
This could also be due to the "tell, don't show" quality of much of the play. These characters have a lot to say (a lot of it worth hearing), but there are only rare moments of characters actually behaving. You can see this play out in the directing -- the cast has been given a lot to do, including darts, fiddling with a guitar, and even a game of frisbee, but rarely are they revealing themselves through behavior. Yes, in a play you can make grand pronouncements,but they have to be rooted in real people making real choices.
One scene of the play makes the case. The first scene between Jason and Helen is compelling, warm and honest -- it was my favorite scene of the play. In it, Jason is doing everything he can to keep the conversation going, flirting as best as he can with scientific studies and weird facts. Helen responds in kind, pulling away when he's weird but drawing in when his humanity shows through. Ultimately, the scene sets up the biggest, best and most deserved laugh in the show.
That scene was all about behavior and it was a delight. If the rest of Before You followed that example, the equation would work itself out in spades.
---Cody Daigle
No comments:
Post a Comment