The writer's skills were manifested in a complicated plot through which were woven eight homogeneous college grads warfing and woofing through ten years of creative and romantic complications.
The play's tangled skeins would test the memory span of any audience. Thus, as the lights come up, Jennifer (or was it Amy?) loves Tom, but can't get to first base because Tom's smitten with Carla (or was it Jennifer?) who's "seeing" Andy -- but please don't tell Tom... !
There were some moments of fine writing, such as repeated mentions of "seven minutes of heaven," referring to the conjugal act. But there was precious little conjugation. Men cried, and couples lived together for years, selling out while clinging to integrity, but no one married.
Steve Dane playing Tom -- surely the author's surrogate -- was endearing in a bitter-sweet monologue in which he bemoans the critical treatment of his poetry book ("the Ishtar of the small poetry press," someone called it).
Stephanie A. Jones, supposed to be "a walking male fantasy," was silken smooth; but Kevin Shine as Andy got stuck with lines like, "Let it out," to Tom, who mourns the tragic death of both his parents, then later, "Life is a process...a journey," possibly meant to be comically fatuous.
Perhaps Jack Lemon, with split-second timing, could weave in a human action to make us laugh despite the clumsiness. But this company's resources were more limited, and so the overall impression got mixed.
Others who were fine included Bruce Barney, Dory Binyon, Debra Funkhouser, Jonquil Saleheen, and especially Matt Tomasino as the empty-hearted filmmaker-host to all his college chums.
The director demonstrated ingenuity in showing someone's hidden feelings through staging. But he ran actors down the aisle a bit too often, let groups sit and watch the action, or let them leave en masse in order to arrange a conflict that then seemed to drop out of the sky.
Lisa Tracy's costumes were good, as was Paul Ziemer's lighting. Steve Capone had perhaps the only raked stage off-off-Broadway on which to design his exceptional set, which combined impressionism with real wood and glass to recreate a beach house deck.
Despite its flaws, this kind of production, and IRT, the company behind it. is what off-off-Broadway should be: a chance for young artists to spread their wings, even if they only have seven minutes of heaven to offer. That's not such a bad ratio in love or theatre -- for anyone who loves the theatre.
Copyright 1999 Marshall Yaeger