Dusk Rings a Bell  

Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
The Lounge Theater
Extended through March 27

At the heart of Stephen Belber’s dramedy is that painful longing that arises from time to time in all of us to revisit a past time of possibility and happiness.

The action takes place on a beach in Delaware, where Molly (Brea Bee), a successful CNN executive, has returned to her family’s former beach rental house to find a note she wrote to herself when she was 14. She soon encounters Ray (Wes McGee), the caretaker of the house and a landscaper. After some initial banter, she recognizes him as the boy she shared an exhilarating and memorable moment of teenage intimacy with a quarter of a century earlier.

As described in a somewhat languorous opening monologue, Molly’s life has been one of ups and downs, adventures and emotional emptiness. Ray, however, because of his involvement in a fatal incident of gay-bashing, has spent a decade in prison and struggles to live with the aftermath. Their chance meeting affords them a brief romance and the illusion of potential happiness, but the emotional and psychological gulf between them and Molly’s failed attempt to understand Ray’s role in the crime eventually proves too much to overcome.

Dusk is a story that requires emotionally nuanced performances from the performers, a quality not in evidence here. The overall tone of the production is muted, an effect underscored by a barebones staging and John Hindman’s overly cautious direction.

The Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun. 7 p.m.; Extended through March 27. (323) 960-7784 or www.plays411.com/dusk Running time: 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission.