Didactic's Close-Up On Marriage

Echoes of "No Exit" reverberate through the Didactic Theatre Company's staging of "Orange Flower Water" at the District of Columbia Arts Center.

Not that there's anything particularly Sartrean about Craig Wright's unflinching portrait of marriage and adultery in a small town: The play is, after all, hip enough to refer to Sour Skittles. But Wright's marital equations skew toward bleakness in the cramped environment of the DCAC black-box theater, which positions audience and actors uncomfortably close to each other. And the scenes that unfurl around the production's sole set element -- a huge bed with a red coverlet -- seem to argue repeatedly that love and passion are just ways of creating hell for other people.

Struggling to keep their spirits up in the face of this sad reality are the play's two married couples -- David and Cathy (Frank Britton and Dana Edwards) and Brad and Beth (Cesar Guadamuz and Helen Pafumi) -- who live in Anywhere U.S.A., according to the Didactic program (Wright actually sets the piece in Minnesota). When David and Beth drift into romance, they set in motion a chain of recrimination and doubt that's interlinked with a few touches of humor and a modicum of hope.

The prolific Wright, whose works include "Melissa Arctic" and "Grace," has devised a tidy but dynamic form for "Orange Flower Water" (which was staged at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va., in 2002). Two-person scenes bring the characters together in various permutations, building a sense of intimacy and neighborliness gone wrong. All the actors remain visible throughout the play -- they're in chairs on the side of the stage when not in a scene -- creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia and social constraint.

In the Didactic production, director Patrick Crowley hasn't exploited this setup as well as he might have; the performers tend to look a little wooden as they stand to the side of the bed, tossing off lines of accusation and apology.

Nor is the acting wholly engaging. As David, a well-meaning pharmacist, Britton delivers most of his lines with the same husky intonation, lending a certain monotony even to his portions of two sex scenes. As Brad, a video store proprietor who's pretty much an unadulterated louse, Guadamuz certainly hits an apt note of egocentric vulgarity -- and he looks the part, with his facial stubble and untucked shirt (Vanessa Vaughn designed the deliberately un-chic attire) -- but his is not a very detailed portrait.

Pafumi has more focus and naturalism as the angst-ridden housewife Beth, whose foray into infidelity seems painfully reluctant. Edwards gives a slightly comic turn to Cathy -- a welcome touch, given the play's sober vision.

The actresses complement each other in a bittersweet sequence that unites Beth and Cathy at a children's soccer match. As the two women stand on the sidelines beneath a single umbrella, looking at the game but not at each other, their hesitant conversation hints at depths of empathy and resentment.

Wright allows the fraught mood to slide a little toward optimism in "Orange Flower Water's" final scene, which brings the poignant title metaphor fully into focus.

The reasonably upbeat twist notwithstanding, audiences will be relieved to escape from the play's reality into the open air.

Orange Flower Water, by Craig Wright. Directed by Patrick Crowley. Lighting, Jason Cowperthwaite; sound, Brendon Vierra. About 90 minutes. Through Nov. 12 at the District of Columbia Arts Center, 2438 18th St. NW. Call 202-249-0782 or visit http://www.didactictheatre.com .