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| April Singer, Ryan Watson, Scot Atkinson and J.P. Lebangood in Things We Want. Photo – The Bard's Town. |
By Jonathan Marc Sherman
Directed by J.P. Lebangood
Reviewed by Keith Waits
Entire contents are copyright © 2013, Keith Waits. All
rights reserved.
Things We Want seems like a play about selfish impulse masquerading as empowerment,
which makes it involving and provocative if not as satisfying as we might hope
it to be. A simple, repetitive narrative structure takes it easy on the
audience, yet rich dialogue keeps the ideas bouncing around with some
complexity.
The plot concerns Charlie, who has returned home to lick his
wounds after a break-up. His two older brothers present a contrast: Sty spends
the first scenes in an alcoholic stupor; while Teddy, the firstborn, displays
confidence and reason in the advice he shares with his baby brother. When
Stella, a comely upstairs neighbor, arrives in a school girl’s outfit (part of
a singular birthday ritual), she and Charlie hit it off and the first act ends
on a hopeful note.
What happens after intermission is best left to discover for
yourself, but it nicely mirrors the earlier action, and Mr. Sherman smartly
juxtaposes incident and details without straining credulity. What seems
laudable at first is later framed as self-gratification, and the implication is
clear that grabbing what we want in life is more often than not a selfish act
that can leave others in the dust. The play is funny and entertaining, but the
extreme pessimissim may leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.
A good cast, under the capable direction of J.P. Lebangood,
give the sour a sweet spin. Ryan Watson has the range to do many things, but he
is particularly good at rendering soft, American males with hair-trigger
neurosis and makes Charlie his own. As Sty (short for the improbable Stuyvesant),
Scot Atkinson cuts a shabby and ramshackle figure when he emerges from his couch to
set things in motion and makes us wonder why this good actor has spent so much
time behind the scenes directing at The Bard’s Town. Mr. Lebangood does
double-duty playing Teddy and gives the character real edge and danger. His
scenes late in the evening with April Singer’s Stella are unexpected and
bracing; the two actors enjoy a heady chemistry that delivers a visceral
onstage charge.
Their fine work lends these characters perhaps more
dimension than the text promises. In order to make his points, Mr. Sherman’s
story exchanges organic growth for artificial dichotomies that, while
undeniably clever, fail to fully engage the audience emotionally. A year passes
between the first and second acts, with changes in the characters that are not
so much explained as assumed. The audience follows the trajectory well enough
because it is grounded in cliché. When the action is genuinely surprising and
fresh in its observation, it is to expose the darker side of human desire with
acrid distaste.
Costumes and sets were suitably drawn and in the end, the
work of the well-cast quartet of actors, as well as the pleasure of a play new
to Louisville, makes this a production worth recommending.
Things We Want
May 9-18 @ 7:30 p.m.
The Bard’s Town Theatre
1801 Bardstown Road
Louisville KY 40204
(502) 749-5275
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