Any group of short plays will have some hits and misses. Fortunately for Oberon Theatre Ensemble, there are more hits than misses in American Rapture: the lonely soul of a crowded nation, an evening of several short plays by Alex Dinelaris paired with the classic one-act Hello Out There by William Saroyan. Dinelaris directs all the plays.
First is Spin Cycle, the most complex piece of the evening. A Television Host (Donovan Patton), a Homicidal Man (Brad Fryman), a Corrupt Cop (William Laney), and an Amoral Attorney (Laura Siner) collide in a brilliant series of edge-of-your-seat short scenes, in which the meaning and sequence of events gets shifted kaleidoscopically. Note-perfect performances from all four in this one. It's an impressive and clever piece, though the overlong pauses with music between scenes were a trifle confusing- knowing it's an evening of shorts, it wasn't clear at first if the story was continued or if the second scene was a new play.
Next is Blind Date (voices)- it's a standard gag in short plays (since at least Alice Gerstenberg's 1913 Overtones) to portray people holding onto polite conversation shadowed by other actors who speak their unheard inner thoughts. Here Jeffrey (Donovan Patton) is on a blind date with Kristin (Jane Cortney), attended by a Waiter (Brad Fryman), all three followed by their inner voices - Butch (Max Darwin), Mae (Christine Verleny), and Phil (William Laney). Although a cliché setup, it's well handled, and one of the comedic high points of the evening. The actors are all very funny, especially Fryman and Laney as the waiter.
Third is Rain (Ghosts), in which Amanda (Jane Cortney) is about to leave her ten-year reunion without going inside when she runs into Fitz (Max Darwin), a fellow she doesn't really like, but in a touching scene, they both cathartically pretend to be friends. Amanda had come to the reunion hoping to see Sean (Donovan Patton), who'd promised to show up, but who hasn't, for reasons that should be obvious from the title of the play.
Fourth up (after the intermission) is Juggling Jacqueline (Memories), in which Jack (Vince Gatton) is talking with his therapist (Laura Siner), about his mother Jacqueline (Christine Verleny), who appears in the room in his head to berate him. It seems that (voices), (ghosts), and (memories) are meant to be understood as a set (all three being about people being spoken to by people only in their minds), and I felt it did the plays a disservice to place the intermission before the three were complete- it made this one seem merely a retread of the earlier (voices). Despite that, Verleny is especially touching as a raucous broad of a mother, and Gatton shows off his talented hands.
Next is a monologue entitled Forgiven. Jane Cortney holds the stage in her hands as Molly, a prostitute who'd spontaneously decided to go for confession for the first time in years. Her talk to the unseen priest makes some nice points about religious hypocrisy (with some potshots at Gay priests), though being a monologue, it's a bit, well, one-sided. I'd love for the piece to be a two-hander, and give the priest some time to talk- we can infer his platitudes from Molly's responses, but for most of the audience, I suspect Molly was preaching to the converted.
And finally, the sundae on top of the cherry- Hello Out There. William Saroyan's 1942 play is effective in its simplicity. A Young Man (Stewart Walker) is imprisoned in a tiny Texas town, on a trumped-up charge of rape. Alone in his cell, he calls out the title of the play, and is heard by The Girl (Diánna Martin) who cooks in the jail. The two find a magical kinship in their loneliness, and dream plans of escape to a better place, till a Man (Gabe Bettio), the husband of the alleged rapee, comes to kill the Young Man, with a mob at his heels. Great performances from Walker and Martin make the play's power nearly visceral.
It's a satisfying evening of theatre- recommended for anyone who enjoys short plays. Oberon is running it in repertory with Much Ado About Nothing, which I am unfortunately unable to see.
