Remembering the Future
Reviewed by V Cate
Sweet Talk Productions
Thru August 21
“Any attempt to interpret meaning is done at your own risk.” – Peter Lefcourt
Melissa and Greg were young and in love, that kind of teenage love of firsts and mutual discovery and a future that looks like a blank sky filled with stars rather than a receding hourglass, or a day planner with limited space to fill. But when Greg suddenly broke off their relationship, they fell out of each other’s lives. Now, Melissa (Tarina Pouncy) & Greg (Michael Corbett) find themselves on the other side of four decades, and are about to meet up for the first time since that heartbreak.
It’s a relatable premise for many adults: Reconnecting with an old flame. Messaging each other over social media with trepidation and excitement. Deciding to meet in person after so very long. Getting dressed up, nervous. Will there still be an old spark, or perhaps a spark that is entirely new? The question: Will I be desired? Will, within another’s eyes (another from my past) will I see myself reflected in a way that I can recognize myself at last?
Peter Lefcourt’s script, under Terri Hanauer’s direction, examines this meetup, in all its awkwardness and heat, but there is a twist on this simple premise; Melissa & Greg are joined by their younger selves (played by Fatima El-Bashir & Andrew Neaves), who make a case for acting less rationally and more passionately.
At times the material comes off as outdated — as in the many instances womanhood is simultaneously dismissed and othered into gender-norm mysticism (“Women do not sit alone at bars,” “It’s a sixth sense women have,” or the egregious “For women, it’s the ultimate compliment” when talking about a responsive erection, as examples). But the material in other ways transcends bygone eras, and the lessons from the text are clearly tethered to the playwright’s real world wisdom.
Still, there is one glaring flaw of the production, and that is the completely unnecessary character of the Bartender. Self-described as “comic relief,” the Bartender (played confidently by David Jahn) interrupts everyone around him, refuses to tend his bar, revels in his own arrogance, and — most atrociously — interrupts the flow and momentum of the play throughout. He delights in derailing the theatrical action, taking up space seemingly just for the sake of it.
Admittedly, the Bartender does have a few functions, purely as a theatrical device, but many of these functions are gratuitous. For example, the information, told to us in the Bartender’s wink-wink-nudge-nudging, verbal exposition at the beginning, is revealed more gracefully in the dialogue between Melissa & Greg later. Additionally, he and a stagehand do move set pieces and props, and he does fill a few other roles (which are essentially the same character), but these are also unnecessary.
The most difficult extraction would be this character’s nature as the “voice of the playwright,” commenting on the proceedings with a smirk. But this self-satisfying act assumes the audience needs to be told how to feel.
These offenses aside, Remembering the Future is a successfully provoking play, successful in its sweetness.
Youth is intrinsically woven with idealism. But youth also contains a certain wisdom that we forget how to access as we grow older. Dreams and possibility and passion are traded for routine and security and survival. Could we really make a different choice?
In the same way that an audience may connect with the 18 year-old characters as avatars of a lost past, Lefcourt (born in 1946) seems to regard the 58 year-olds in much the same way. It comes as an indictment to all who have let their past dreams fall by the wayside, and an incitement to people of all ages that there is ever an opportunity to change.
Sweet Talk Productions at Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles; Fri/Sat 8pm & Sun 2pm; www.Onstage411.com/Future or (310)477-2055, ext. 2. Running time: 1 Hour 40 minutes with one 10-minute intermission.
