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| Brian Hastert as Max Marianna Bassham as Claire Chelsea Diehl as Elena Nael Nacer as Alex "A Future Perfect" SpeakEasy Stage Company Through February 7 at the Stanford Calderwood Pavillion Photo by Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo |
When I enter a performance space, ready to take in a show, I have a set routine that I follow. I get settled into my seat, put away my books, check to be sure that my iPhone has been put to sleep, and begin to examine the set. I have come to believe that with just the right synergy among the Playwright, Director and Scenic Designer, the properly designed set can serve as a tacit prologue to the action that will soon take place upon the stage. This triangulation of efforts was in perfect harmony in the set designed by the incomparable multiple Elliot Norton Award winner Cristina Todesco. The set is the nicely appointed Park Slope apartment of Max and Claire, who live on 1 and 1/2 salaries. Several things hit me about the apartment's accouterments: the back wall offered hints of things to come. There was a guitar hanging on the brick wall that had been painted white. Nearby were hung coils of electric cord that one would use to connect a guitar to an amp or a monitor. Also hanging on that wall were parts of several disassembled bicycles. One piece stood out: a white bike frame inside a white picture frame. I was alert to the strong possibility that wry New York humor and irony would be on the menu for the evening. Surely Ken Urban's script would contain lots of urban and urbane dialogue and repartee. And a play with the title "A Future Perfect" would also feature tense situations and intense relationships.
Here is the set-up for this World Premiere of "A Future Perfect" as offered on the SpeakEasy Website:
Claire and Max find their values put to the test when best friends Alex and Elena announce they are having a baby. Claire is climbing the corporate ladder in advertising, while her husband Max is a puppeteer for PBS. With friends entering into parenthood, they ask: What happened to the indie-rock kids that hated everything their parents believed in?"
The action opens as pictured above, with Alex and Elena visiting in Max and Claire's home for a familiar evening of food, drinks and board games. When the news slips out that Elena is pregnant after some complicated fertility treatments and prior disappointments, Claire's reaction is less than enthusiastic. We soon learn that Claire is laser focused on issues of career - for herself and Elena and for any other woman intent on making it in a man's world. The rest of the play explores many layers of complications, including those of Elena's pregnancy, and examines how that anticipated event would change the lives of all four of the principal characters. The gestation of the pregnancy - and of their four-way relationships - are not without serious unexpected bumps in the road.
Claire, as played by Marianna Bassham, comes across initially as the "ball buster" that Alex accuses her of being. As the action progresses, Ms. Bassham paints additional layers onto the stony foundation of the character of Claire, pastel shades that make her more vulnerable, approachable and sympathetic. This is a finely nuanced performance by a gifted actor. Max is complex in his own way. He and Alex had been part of a band, and they still get together to practice and try out new music from time to time - but the old days are gone, and Claire is not the only one who has become "professionalized." Brian Hastert is convincing and moving as Max, wanting to be a Dad, wanting a more fulfilling writing career than his part-time gig at PBS, and wanting not to be marginalized out of Claire's life by her monomaniacal commitment to her career as an advertising executive. Nael Nacer plays the subdued - verging on the nebbish - Alex with a light touch that fits his character to perfection. He seems to have "settled" for a career in insurance sales, and is ambivalent about becoming a dad. He and Claire also go back to the days of the band, and they often tangle. Chelsea Diehl's Elena always feels inferior to Claire and her accomplishments and strong opinions. Hers in another subdued and nuanced performance.
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Brian Hastert as Max
Marianna Bassham as Claire
"A Future Perfect"
SpeakEasy Stage Company
Through February 7
at the Stanford Calderwood Pavillion
Photo by Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo
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Plot twists - both anticipated and unexpected - keep the tension mounting and the conflicts coming. The denouement is a subtle and moving scene between Max and Claire in which he plays for her a new song he has written, lyrics stripped of his usual cynicism, heart laid bare for her to do with as she pleases.
Director M. Bevin O'Gara modulates the complex interactions among the characters with a deft hand, supported strongly by Ms. Todesco's design, Elisabetta Polito's Costumes, Jen Rock's Lighting and Nathan Leigh's Sound. Young actor Uatchet Juin Juch is strong in her brief appearance as a child actor in Max's PBS puppet show.
And what of the promises offered by the set design? After sleeping on it and letting the images steep in my mind - like the tea that Claire serves Max - I have some thoughts. The power cords may represent the ways in which music both connects and disconnects the characters from one another. The dismantled pieces of bicycle may be emblematic of the disrupted journeys that each of the four individuals experience throughout the action of the play. At the end of the day, each audience member maps out his or her own artistic journey in assembling in unique and personal ways layers of meaning from the building blocks that have been offered by the playwright, creative team and actors.
If you love theater as much as I do, you will find this new play to be a treat and a wonderful vehicle for discovery and reflection.
Enjoy!
Al
A Future Perfect
JAN 9 - FEB 7, 2015Buy Tickets Now
Written by Ken Urban
Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara
Production Stage Management by Adele Nadine Traub
Set Design by Cristina Todesco
Costume Design by Elisabetta Polito
Lighting Design by Jenn Rock
Sound Design by Nathan Leigh
Props Supervision by Christine Goldman
Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara
Production Stage Management by Adele Nadine Traub
Set Design by Cristina Todesco
Costume Design by Elisabetta Polito
Lighting Design by Jenn Rock
Sound Design by Nathan Leigh
Props Supervision by Christine Goldman
Producers Circle
Producers
Zach Durant-Emmons & Willis Emmons
Sam Yin
Zach Durant-Emmons & Willis Emmons
Sam Yin
This production is made possible through the generosity of these donors. For more information about joining the Producers Circle please contact Jeff Kubiatowicz, Director of Development, at jeff@speakeasystage.com or 617-482-3279.
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