Barrington Stage Co., St. Germain Stage
through August 27, 2017
by Jarice Hanson
 |
| Photo by Scott Barrow |
When you first see the cluttered St. Germain Stage, you may
think that all of This action takes place in one location. Within minutes you
realize that Brian Prather’s set and Scott Pinkney’s lighting design offer
multiple playing areas for the multi-talented ensemble cast that move through
this one-act play with verbal lightning-speed.
“This” is a play about words, memory, honesty, and dealing
with the passage of youth to middle-age. All of those things comprise “This.”
The double entendre is a metaphor for a stage in life that is inevitable, but
still mysterious and frightening. The play is funny, sad, and very human.
There’s a character who is a mnemonist—a person with exact
recall, who corrects the record when husband and wife argue, and who forces
everyone to deal with the distortions of reality their minds trick them into
believing. No one plays quirky characters with oddball traits better than Mark
H. Dold, and in this group of players, his character, Alan, is the perpetually
single gay friend who buffers the action among the trio of young widow, Jane
(Julia Coffey), her best friend Marrell (Erica Dorfler) and Marrell’s husband
Tom (Eddie Boroevich). The catalyst for much of the action is Jean-Pierre
(Paris Remillard), an idealistic bisexual “Doctor Without Borders” (or
boundaries) who comes to meet Jane, but stays to add an additional level of
honesty to the group’s interactions.
Director Louisa Proske successfully finds the balance in the
imbalances of relationships and gives every actor their moment to relate to the
audience. The result is that we feel empathy for every character, and even
more, we see our own illusions and delusions in their struggle to deal with
life’s unexpected twists and turns.
In her introduction to the play Artistic Director Julianne
Boyd said that she was pleased to introduce audiences to the work of young
playwright Melissa James Gibson. I
concur, and after full immersion in a play that Charles Isherwood called
“beautifully conceived, confidently executed and wholly accessible” I look
forward to more of Gibson’s written work. BSC can be proud of the teamwork they’ve harnessed for
This.
