Intiman Theatre's season opener doesn't hit a home run. It's more like a base hit. But playwright Richard Dresser's "Rounding Third" does offer a comedic peek into the world of Little League baseball. Not the players, but the coaches who guide those young souls by example while teaching them the rules of the game.
Dresser actually penned his two-character play after his own son's Little League coach suggested that a slower player fake an injury to help the team win. Dresser was so outraged, he sat down and started writing.
But this lightweight theatrical riff on America's favorite pastime might have played better as a 90-minute sojourn, rather than a dragged out, two-act saga. Despite the gallant efforts of its talented actors, "Rounding Third" plods along, especially the first half. You get a little tired of two wildly different male archetypes bantering back and forth. Thankfully, the second act picks up the pace - or maybe we just adapt.
As two mismatched Little League dads face off with opposing philosophies about competition and winning, the audience stands in for the team members. Corporate exec and newly recruited assistant coach Michael espouses the "can't we just have fun?" attitude, while blue-collar dad and veteran coach Don takes a "win at all costs" stance. If Mike is the Tony Robbins, Don would be Joe Torres. Just think of them as the Odd Couple of baseball.
Bill Forrester's set design provides a believable ambience for their antics. A weather-worn scoreboard, a primitive wire backdrop, two wooden benches and a home plate bathed in a shaft of light from an overhead beam.
Ably directed by BJ Jones, the cast features Michael David Edwards as Mike and Richard Ziman as Don. Both actors recently moved to Seattle and are making their Intiman Theatre debuts.
With wonderful comedic timing and loudmouth panache, Ziman plays the more colorful role of Don, a housepainter who's been coaching Little League ball for seven years. Plus, his son Jimmy reigns as the star pitcher of the team. A beer-guzzling man's man, Don doesn't beat around the bush. He tells - or yells - it like it is.
The dreamer in Don emerges only when he reminisces about his years as a player. He still remembers every stat and detail of a game he played when he was 12 and his team almost won the championship.
Contrary to his insensitive veneer, Don makes it his business to know everything about his young players. Philip forgets to double-knot his shoelaces, and Eric's eyes started twitching when his parents divorced. Timmy gets a lot of special attention because Don has the hots for Timmy's mom. And Frankie can't catch a ball to save his life. Did we mention that Frankie is Mike's son?
Don also has a few pet peeves. He hates it when people are late. And Mike is always late. After all, Mike's predecessor Tony, a local cop, was late only once - by 20 minutes when he was shot in the groin by a stray bullet.
If Ziman scores as Mr. Baseball, Edwards personifies the clueless, mocha latte-drinking Mike, or Michael, as he prefers to be called. So Michael, who doesn't know a curveball from a fungo, strives to be a good father and make the best of his life - self-help style. But he's really a sheep in nerd's clothing whose boss has him by the balls. The cellphone rings, and Michael responds like a Pavlovian lab rat. Another problem? He knows nothing about baseball - nada - but rationalizes that he can learn because he knows all about curling from his days as a player in Canada.
As these two nothing-in-common men continue to clash, there's only one thing that irritates Don more than "Mikey." Musical theater.
But in Act Two, Don runs into a few foul balls. He receives a crushing blow when his son Jimmy auditions for a musical - "Brigadoon" - and lands a part. And Don's marriage begins to crumble. As the play winds up for its final inning, Dresser turns the tables with a predictable but not-unpleasant twist on trading places.
Over the years, there have been numerous films about Little League, most notably "The Bad News Bears" and its endless trail of sequels. But there have been few, if any, plays about kids and baseball. Certainly nothing memorable.
Although "Rounding Third" is billed as a comedy, it contains subtle truths about parenthood, teamwork, fair play and America's value system. After all, Little League ball fields supposedly breed character and integrity, not produce future Enron executives, steroid sports icons and congressional lobbyists.
Dresser's homage to baseball delivers plenty of amusing moments, including a jab at cellphone addiction, but does little for the women in the audience. Unless you're a phys-ed instructor, a Little League mom or the wife of a coach, you could find yourself stifling yawns. In fact, judging from the insights this play offers into the mysteries of manhood, it could be billed as a tragedy.
But hey, as Mike might enthuse, "It's only a play."[[In-content Ad]]
