Local playwright Jeff Stilwell folded his tent for lack of performing space some time back. Well, now he is on the scene again, this time at New Space in Shoreline with an intense, dramatic comedy you don’t want to miss. It is an uninterrupted, 90-minute power pack with something to say and a super-charged cast of four saying it. The title is “One Tile Short.”
“Tile” posits Pip (David Bailey), a UW prof obsessed with reconciling world religions so as to prevent global wars. Nothing less than international peace is all he eats, sleeps and talks about. His wife, Angie (Carissa Meisner Smit), loves him dearly; but give her a break, the poor woman’s starved for a little fun. So off this strung-out couple goes for a romantic getaway camping in the Northwest’s great out-of-doors.
Complication: Up pops Trevor (Lars Enden), Pip’s faculty colleague and arch opposite. Trevor is turning out best-sellers right and left. He’s got money, fame, the best of everything and eyes for Angie. In effect, Trevor is the serpent, Angie is Eve and Pip, Adam the otherwise-preoccupied.
What makes this love-triangle in the garden of Eden work is the tack it takes and the latitude it gives actors. The talk is about life and people in today’s world. The subtext is the gathering storm between husband and wife and the offer of relief insinuated by a likable enough slob. Within those guidelines, the reality created is up to the actors. These make it funny, serious and completely satisfying.
Bailey’s dreamer in the ivory tower avoids the cruelty the misunderstood can inflict in favor of the kind of lovableness Charlie Chaplin’s comedy is famous for.
Smit’s devoted but long-suffering wife who has reached the end of herself raises the ideal of womankind from self-insistent to self-assertive with room for others. Smit makes it tough not to grow with her. I was glad she took me along.
As for the heavy who lightens things up, Enden’s Trevor is the right guy for the job. Life lived in the fast lane with all the bells and whistles can be made to look pretty darn good when times are hard. Enden pushes all the right buttons without finesse or apology. I didn’t like liking him.
The Park Ranger functioning as the voice of worldly wisdom is Mike Way. Way’s way is untutored but knowing the difference between what is real and what is false. He adds ballast to the production’s ethereal, sometimes esoteric qualities. Way balances out the folly and foibles.
This is a worthwhile night out. Also, it bodes well for community theater at large. Stilwell and Smit will be helping the Driftwood Players launch their Alternative Stages productions for the 2009-10 season. The goal there is to provide a home for small, off-beat, unusual shows. I see them all the time, and it never ceases to amaze me. Even now when times are tough, there’s no people like show people.
Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entfeatures@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.
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