You shouldn’t tell people the truth. Not if you’ve gotten away with something.
This line helped launch one of the premises of the play “Private Eyes.” For some, honesty should be a last resort.
Trying to figure out the truth in this play is a formidable challenge because not much that appears on stage is what it seems. But if you are up for a challenge that comes with a lot of comic relief, then go see “Private Eyes.” The show just finished up at the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe but is running for two weekends beginning May 30 at Everett Theatre.
“Private Eyes” is a smart, sexy and witty thriller. The play’s clever dialogue is even more enhanced by a strong cast of Sky Performing Arts actors who make each scene count and who deliver lines with a one-two punch.
The twisty-turny plot focuses on Matthew’s wife, Lisa, who is having an affair with Adrian, a British theater director. But is she? Could it be that’s just part of a play being rehearsed? Or is this affair all part of Matthew’s imagination, so he has something to believe in about his relationship that he can report to his therapist? Then there’s Cory, the mystery woman. Does it seem she is shadowing the others?
But that’s enough said about the plot, which is obviously infused with deceit. As playwright Stephen Dietz once said about this work: “There is little that matches the mad rush of falling in love other than the mad rush of being betrayed. It takes the same amount of energy, same amount of passion.”
This play has been called an actor’s play because of the depth of passion and emotion necessary, not to mention the necessity of comic timing. All these bases are covered here.
Asa Sholdez solidly delivers as Matthew. Several times he even gave us goose bumps. Sholdez has been acting in community theater since 2005 and he just gets better and better.
Carissa Misner Smit played a fiery Lisa. Michael McFadden delivered some of the play’s best one-liners with style: “I’ve broken a few commandments already and I haven’t even had my tea.” Lisa Goshorn as Cory was sultry and sinister. Karl Holzheimer as Frank the therapist had the tough part of addressing the audience, but he met our eyes with confidence, and, though we weren’t sure if he really was, indeed, the only one who could be trusted with this story, he had us all believing his simple steps to betrayal: “Every now and then we ask, ‘What if?’ If we make it to how, we’re just a stone’s throw away from when.”
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