A Delicate Ship 

Reviewed by Neal Weaver 
The Road on Magnolia 
Extended through March 24  

Sarah (Paris Perrault) and her boyfriend Sam (Philip Orazio) are enjoying a quiet Christmas Eve at home when they are interrupted by an imperious knocking at the door. The visitor is Nate (Josh Zuckerman), Sarah’s friend since childhood and perhaps her former lover. He is clearly an unwelcome interruption, and the lovers wish he’d go away. But he is a man with a mission, and he won’t be stopped. After a Christmas Eve visit to his parents, he has suddenly decided that Sarah is the only woman on earth for him, and he must have her at any cost. He ruthlessly and desperately sets out to sabotage the relationship between Sarah and Sam, and there are no holds barred.

First, he launches vicious verbal assaults on both of them, insisting to Sarah that he is the one she loves, and belittling Sam and questioning his manhood.  Sarah responds that she knows what Nate’s doing, and urges him to stop — but he plows on, revealing secrets from their shared past, along with humiliating moments in her life. Sam is at a disadvantage because he does not share Nate and Sarah’s long common history, and is disconcerted when Sarah’s loyalty seems to shift to Nate instead of himself. He threatens to leave but doesn’t, and she refuses to take sides. In a rage, Sam throws a punch at Nate, bloodying his nose and furnishing him a chance to play for Sarah’s sympathy. When at last she is driven to declare herself, it precipitates the final catastrophe.

Anna Ziegler’s play is a subtle examination of tangled human emotions — perceptive but only moderately satisfying. The play is threaded with many references to the mythological Icarus who fell to his death when he flew too close to the sun. Sarah quotes W. H. Auden’s poem “Musee Des Beaux Arts,” which is inspired by Pieter Breughel’s painting “The Fall of Icarus.” And the delicate ship of Ziegler’s title refers to the ship in Breughel’s painting which passes by, oblivious to Icarus as he falls into the sea. Ziegler appears to be equating Nate with Icarus, which seems a stretch. And the final coda suggests that both Sam and Sarah have moved on, largely unaffected by Nate’s fall. In the end, though, it’s not clear just how much of this could be understood without a knowledge of Breughel’s painting.

Director Andre Barron has fashioned a skillful and sensitive production, and his actors inhabit it nicely. Zuckerman dominates the action as the flamboyant and manipulative Nate; Orazio provides a sympathetic take on the quieter Sam, and Perrault highlights the desperate confusion of a woman torn in two directions.

Sarah B. Brown’s pleasant set features a backdrop of panels onto which Nick Santiago’s photos of handsome and moody cityscapes are projected.

The Road on Magnolia, 10747 Magnolia Boulevard, North Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; (818) 761-8838 or www.roadtheatre.org. Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.