Early Birds
Reviewed by Katie Buenneke
Moving Arts
Through September 7
When it comes to buffets, it seems the early bird does catch the worm — or at least, the early bird gets to eat her food before anyone else touches it. This is the conclusion that Nora (Jean Gilpin) and Ivy (Jayne Taini) reach in Dana Schwartz’s Early Birds. Moving Arts presents this world premiere at the Atwater Village Theatre.
The art for the show, which is used in the marketing materials and on the cover of the program, shows two senior women flashing the ocean from atop a ship. The image is somewhat misleading, for while both Nora and Ivy are gray-haired ladies aboard a cruise who are occasionally foul-mouthed, this isn’t a raunchy comedy, or even much of a comedy at all. It’s amusing at times, sure, but not laugh-out-loud funny.
We meet Nora and Ivy as they meet, staking out seats on the Serenity Deck of the cruise they’re on. Nora is prim, a wealthy widow twice over, while Ivy is more acerbic. Despite their differences, they get along quite well, and grow close quickly. In each scene, we see Nora and Ivy at the beginning or end of their day, occasionally interrupted by the ship’s captain, Devon (Wendy Elizabeth Abraham), a young woman who’s adept at connecting with and caring for retirees.
There are some really nice moments of emotional truth in the relationship between Gilpin’s Nora and Taini’s Ivy, but they’re obscured by a sense that the play is under-rehearsed and the script is half-baked. The actors trip over the text at times, which is distracting, but less of a cause for concern than the issue of the script; while the actors are quite likely to become more familiar with their lines as the run of the show progresses, the script is more of a fixed entity, at least for the time being.
Schwartz’s script isn’t bad, just uneven. Though Gilpin and Taini are strong actors, their characters’ emotions occasionally turn on a dime, and it’s hard for the performers to justify why the characters are behaving like that in that moment. Logically, the text doesn’t hold much water either — captains aren’t typically so social and hands-on with guests on a 500-person cruise (indeed, the ship as a whole seems quite under-staffed). Without getting into spoilers, there are other conceptual issues the script presents that don’t make much sense.
Like the actors, it seems director Elizabeth Swain is doing her best to give the characters emotional through lines. Within each the scene, the pacing works, but the transitions between scenes feel overly long — a stagehand replaces each of the four water bottles on stage between every scene, regardless of whether anyone has drunk from the bottles. Perhaps this is to create a sense of top-notch service aboard the ship, or to give the actors time for their costume changes, but it feels increasingly futile to watch the water bottles be changed out for the umpteenth time. John Iacovelli’s scenic design creates a posh environment, while Jeff Gardner’s sound designer appropriately balances the sounds of the sea with the ability to hear the actors. Martha Carter’s lighting design lights the small stage well, but the amount of light for the evening scenes feels too strong, more like dawn, which makes it difficult to tell when those scenes are set.
Too often, once women reach a certain age, they’re deemed “invisible,” and it’s nice to see a play that chooses to put an underrepresented demographic center stage. As such, praise is due to Moving Arts and Schwartz for tackling this subject matter — but it seems the play itself could benefit from the wisdom that comes with experience (and revision).
Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casita Ave., Atwater Village; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 4 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; Mon., 8 p.m.; through Sep. 7. MovingArts.org. Running time: 85 minutes with no intermission.
