Firebelly Productions is offering two new one-act plays from local playwrights: David Cahill's quirky romantic comedy "Conversing Elevens" and Jonah Sea Knight's "Not So Soft," which is described as a psychological thriller but is actually more a "who cares" than a whodunit. The first play is an audience pleaser, while the second is a pleasure primarily for the actors, who get to showcase their versatility before befuddled viewers.
The Arlington theater company bills this as two world premieres, although a performance of "Conversing Elevens" was featured at the Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage New Play Festival last fall. Cahill has been associated with Firebelly Productions since its founding three years ago, primarily as an actor, and Knight is artistic director of New Play House in Frederick. It's notable that the actor has written a play that is both thought-provoking and entertaining, while the playwright has crafted a drama that focuses primarily on performance, at the expense of thematic focus.
In "Conversing Elevens," a couple (Ed Xavier, Sarah Imes) whose marriage is in jeopardy meets for a "special dinner" in a posh restaurant and ends up subjected to some unusual analysis and "treatment" by a perky waiter (Josh Drew), who seems to think he is a therapist in the mold of Sigmund Freud. One of the cleverest passages has the waiter, who calls himself Sigmund, of course, describing the restaurant dining experience strictly in terms of a doctor-patient relationship. As the couple bickers, leading one or the other to stalk out of the room, Sigmund secretly counsels the one who remains on unorthodox ways to understand and appreciate the other. Director Jessica Lefkow makes sure that it is broadly played for laughs, sitcom style. However, enough insight into the dynamics of relationships is explored and in such a fresh manner that there is actually some substance under the froth.
Played against a bare-bones scenic design consisting of a nicely appointed table flanked by a three-part screen and a large potted plant, from behind which Sigmund can view the fruits of his work, Xavier, Imes and Drew keep it sprightly and avoid overt sentimentality. Drew is enigmatic as the odd waiter, the friendly but officious manner slipping only briefly to display hurt feelings whenever he is treated as a mere waiter. Xavier gets laughs with a hangdog persona, while Imes's character has a harder edge. By the end of the 40 minutes we share with the couple, the audience sees them, singly and together, more clearly than they see themselves and Cahill leaves it for us to decide whether that's poignant or slightly bitter.
Unfortunately, by the time we clearly see the two (and then some) characters in Knight's "Not So Soft," we've lost both patience and interest in them. When we first meet Coie (Imes), she is an anxious housewife being interviewed in a stark interrogation room by police officer Riley (Xavier) about the murder of her husband. She's obviously a troubled woman, the cause seemingly preceding her husband's demise. Officer Riley moves gently through his questions, and all seems routine until the two are suddenly different characters in a strangely subdued flashback.
Before long, Imes is slipping among a series of characters, Xavier less so, often so seamlessly that it takes a while for the audience to catch up. Directed again by Lefkow, the actors skillfully surf Knight's murky script until it dawns that the playwright seems to be employing a hackneyed soap opera device. But that's just his setup to a twist that creates a nice moment at the finale, although by this point it's still a twist of a lemon.
"Conversing Elevens" and "Not So Soft," performed by Firebelly Productions, continue through May 28 at Theatre on the Run, 3700 S. Four Mile Run Dr., Arlington. Showtime is 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. For tickets or more information, visithttp://www.firebellyproductions.netor call 703-409-2372.
