The Information Age is supposed to bring people closer together. Ironically, as British playwright Patrick Marber has shown in his play, Closer, all that it has done is given us even more inventive ways to remain isolated from each other, and from ourselves. In the hands of the Upstairs Theatre Company's gifted director Anthony Runfola and a perfectly chosen cast and design team, this brutally uproarious play is better than a cable modem and one-handed typing dexterity in an Internet sex chatroom.
Marber's black comedy is Pinter's Betrayal for the web-connected. While this caustic and cautionary tale of two men and two women who keep passing each other around is a bleak view of the near-impossibility of intimacy in the modern world, it also has a very British sense of societal classes. The central couple, obituary writer and potential novelist Dan and exotic dancer/wanderer Alice, while offering their mix of lust and deceit, also represent the restless middle class and the hand-to-mouth castaways of society. The couple that unwittingly joins them, photographer Anna and dermatologist Larry, are the privileged upper crust and the social-climbing working class. As the fulcrum of the men's search for economic security with Anna, trusting Alice becomes the easiest tool and most disposable of the foursome. There are so many levels to the cruelty of this play, I couldn't help but smile wickedly throughout the excellently produced evening. Of course, brutal scripts are my cup of bitter tea, so be sure to judge for yourself accordingly.
Mr. Runfola has the gift of bringing together just the right people for each element necessary in a show. His four performers are excellently cast, and his designers are impeccable. He has also paced the evening with uncanny accuracy. The stage pictures he creates are alternately heartbreaking and creepy. As with his 1997 production of subUrbia, he has taken an emotionally charged script and drawn the audience into the harrowing world with an unflinching, uncompromising manner.
The cast that resides in this world is as strong as their director. They are a unit that is constantly working together and listening as much as speaking. When they do talk, they are all exacting with their British accents, although they are sometimes lax with projection. As waif Alice, Robyn Murray embodies the street-wise innocence of her character flawlessly. You can't help but immediately feel sorry for the soft inside obviously lurking within her hard exterior that can only prove to be her downfall. Benjamin Monrad's obsessive and indecisive Dan is nearly unredeemable in his hands. He imbues his character with quirks that seem at first endearing, but quickly become disturbing. At the same time, he never lets the audience completely hate his character, allowing the thin veneer of charm Dan exudes to be his saving grace. Ron May's working class Larry, while not quite as rough as he could have been portrayed, is still menacing in his own right, and Mr. May does relish his more brutal scenes. Finally, as successful photog Anna, Nina Miller conveys her class and distance very well, playing out the character's reserve, hesitation, and occasional rage.
Gro Johre's set is simple and effective. The white wall that backs the set serves multiple, imaginative uses, and the furniture is sparse but exact. The lighting designed by Andrew Campbell is remarkably dramatic considering the limitations of the space. Jannine Doto's costumes are all accurate and expressive. Mr. Monrad's sound design also captures the world of the piece, although the initial choice of an entire song before the start of the show was too much. Toby Ambrose's design of the Internet scene is brilliant.
I hate to have to give any type of warning for a show this wonderfully produced; it definitely has mature subjects and language, but no nudity. Everyone over the age of 13, though, should head over to The Metro Theatre to enjoy this representation of the torture chamber that can be laughingly referred to as "modern romance."
Production Details:
Closer
by Patrick Marber
Upstairs Theatre Company
The Metro Theatre, Scottsdale (For
a map to location, click this
link)
(480) 874-0806
February 16th - March 2nd, 2001