[ssba]
Ligature Marks
Crown Center Theatre
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Through March 7
People who play virtual reality games might have a readier appreciation of the unanticipated twists in Mac Rogers’ play than those of us who don’t. It’s hard to say.
Rogers’ story revolves around the meeting up of two ex-lovers: Terry (Sean Fitzgerald), an angry, psychologically wounded man who’s just come off a two-year stint in prison, and Jill (Liz Fenning), a soft-spoken woman crazy for Terry and as anxious to renew their relationship as he is to avoid it.
So eager is Jill that she’s right there at the prison to pick up Terry on the day of his discharge, luring him back to her apartment with promises of his favorite beer. Her joy at his company is met with pointed dismissal, scorn and his declaration that he’s out the door once his beverage has been downed.
But despite his resolve, Terry ends up settling in, less compelled by sex with Jill — though that does take place — than by the availability of her internet service and the opportunity it affords him to indulge his computer gaming passion.
Directed by Jacob Smith, the first half of this 90-minute play transpires in the everyday reality most of us share. Rogers leans on the ubiquitous dichotomy between Mars and Venus to fuel the narrative, and while that’s hardly novel, it works aptly enough. The dialogue rings true, and as a weirded-out loner looking to stay solo, Fitzgerald is dark, funny, intense and thoroughly credible. In his borderline lunacy, you might mistake him for a younger version of a distracted, demon-haunted Bill Murray.
But somewhere midway through, the script shifts into the virtual. A change in lighting suggests we’re no longer on the same reality plane as before. Where exactly the story is going is very unclear.
It turns out we’ve hitched a ride into Terry’s favorite computer game and that Jill has joined him in its role-playing and make-believe. The problem with this pretending — approximately 40 minutes worth — is that it dissipates the tension between the two characters as we’ve come to know them; with nothing at stake for us in this virtual world, the drama fizzes out.
The production’s other undermining aspect is Fenning’s performance, which amounts to a set of mannerisms without much grasp of what lies beneath the surface. There’s nothing to tell us why she’s attracted to this loser of a guy or why we should really care.
Theatre Unleashed at Crown City Theatre, 11031 Camarillo, Noho; Thurs.-Sat. 8 pm; through March 7. (818) 849-4039, theatreunleashed.org.
