Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA
through July 31, 2016
by Barbara Stroup
 |
| Photograph Daniel Rader |
Within the brief span of “Romance Novels for Dummies”
playwright Boo Killebrew uses her facility for dialogue to help the audience
consider both serious and comedic life issues: how to survive loss, how to
parent alone, how to heal and maintain a sibling’s love, and how to be
oneself. And one more thing that
requires survival skills – a surprise visit from the in-laws. In this premiere
at Williamstown Theatre Festival, the actors deliver all these themes with a
quick pace – there is no time to get mired down in one before the next one
comes along. It all works splendidly with this well-tuned ensemble and
well-crafted play.
High kudos to the principals, Mary Wiseman and Ashley Austin
Morris, who both shine as the sisters, Liz and Bernie. Struggling to make life
work after tragedy and to overcome an old rift is only part of their challenge
in contemporary New York, where Bernie’s comfortable free-spiritedness and
Liz’s old school innocence collide. They are equally determined to love and to
make a life for Liz’s daughter but the path to that goal is full of glitches.
Ms. Wiseman’s “melt-down” brought tears. Justin Long rises to the challenge of
playing three of Liz’s blind dates, most comically as the “personal trainer”
and most caringly as Myron. As the in-laws, Andrew Weems and Connie Ray both
bring a perfect balance of interference and loving in their all-too-brief
appearances.
This premiere presentation fulfills the expectation of
excellence that audiences hold for Williamstown Theatre Festival. The stage and
set are used well, but lighting deserves special mention. A wall of bookcases
in front of a larger “brick” wall of neighboring apartment windows sets both
the urban and domestic scenes and provides intriguing variations in lighting effects.
Boo Killebrew achieves the ultimate: the audience is left
wanting to know the rest of the story, to follow these characters through the
next stages of their lives and especially to hear more from this new playwright.
