Urban, educated Americans often enjoy a sort of extended adolescence, interrupted only by the impending arrival of middle-age. Canadian playwright Melissa James Gibson’s “This” captures this sometimes painful, sometimes comic, delayed transition to adulthood via her tale of 30-something New Yorkers, a set of old college friends trying to maintain relationship status quo while coping with new parenthood, death of a spouse and other life changes.
The cast of characters populating this West Coast premiere, directed by Seattle Rep Associate Artistic Director Braden Abraham, includes new parents Tom (Han Altwies) and Marrell (April Yvette Thompson); their college friends Jane (Cheyenne Casebier), widowed a year ago, and gay, Jewish one-man support team Alan (Nick Garrison). Marrell has invited attractive French doctor without borders (in more ways than one) Jean-Pierre (Ryan Shams) in the hope that he will provide a distraction for her best friend Jane.
With their newborn son sleeping only in 15-minute intervals, sleep-deprived Tom and Marrell quibble over inanities such as the proper operation of a Brita water filter; Jane sleepwalks through life, inattentive to the needs of her nine year-old daughter; a hilarious Nick Garrison as the Woody Allen-like Alan seeks a more meaningful life while still trying to feed his immediate need for companionship and alcohol. Jean-Pierre brings the critical eye of an outsider to the friends’ problems that he dubs “dinky” compared to the global issues of starvation and war that he encounters through his profession. An uncomfortable parlor game results in a spontaneous act of adultery that at first muddies, then clarifies everyone’s priorities as the characters move from their youthful black-and-white views to the less certain grays of adulthood.
Particularly pleasurable is playwright Gibson’s ear for language and wordplay. Would that we all had the mnemonic talents of Alan’s character in order to recall the cleverest bits. In one particularly entertaining scene, Tom and Marrell re-enact an old argument while Alan corrects their remembered words with the precision of a tape recorder. Interspersed with humor is the pathos of loss, not only Jane’s loss of a husband, but the loss of youth, self-assurance, certainty and romantic love giving way to the partnership of parenthood. Casebier is particularly moving as her deadpan, drugged delivery gives way to emotional breakdown in a scene of drunken self-loathing.
At the same time as it is alluring, the attractiveness of the cast presents one of the few false notes, casting an unfortunate sit-com aura to an otherwise literate and entertaining production. L.B. Morse’s set of a nifty New York loft become cluttered through the ravages of everyday life aptly reflects the letting go that is part of the transition to adulthood and parenthood. Peter Eldridge’s original music jazzes up the scene and provides an opportunity for Marrell (Thompson) to display her voice talents.
“This” plays through May 15 at the Leo K Theater at the Seattle Rep.
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