New Repertory Theatre begins its 30thseason
with Steven Dietz’ comedy of modern manners, RANCHO MIRAGE (playing through
Nov. 3rd). New Rep is celebrating its long history of presenting
innovative, thoughtful theater with new programs like the “Insider Experience”
where audiences can venture behind the scenes, witness rehearsals and meet with
directors and designers. And New Rep is joining four other theaters in
presenting the National New Play Network’s “rolling” world premiere of RANCHO
MIRAGE.
Dietz’ play takes three couples, all friends,
through an evening of painful, cathartic, comical revelations. Act I aspires to
be farce, although it’s not quite directed as such. And Act II means to be
biting social commentary, wringing out a warm, fuzzy ending as testament to the
power of friendship. For me, it wasn’t and it didn’t and the disconnect left me
at sea, I’m sorry to say. And I always root for new plays. ( I liked Dietz’ SHOOTING
STAR, about a couple snowed in at an airport, very much.)
Saturday Night Live can handle material (like
Dietz’ cringe-worthy jokes about losing a foot to a landmine) because Lorne
Michaels and company perform in broad, over-the-top strokes. SNL gets laughs
because the audience clearly knows it’s satire and the humor is meant to be
outrageous. Style is all important in comedy. Not for nothing do they say
“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” But when you place callous remarks in the
mouths of characters you want us to care about, it doesn’t wash.
Director Robert Walsh seemed to want a
(relatively) naturalistic tone to the acting, which indicates that we’re to
take seriously all the issues Dietz raises in one small play. It’s quite a
laundry list: International adoption, children orphaned and maimed by war,
fetal alcohol syndrome, underwater mortgages, divorce, miscarriage, infidelity,
Alzheimer’s, unemployment, religious fervor, betrayal of trust. I could go on.
Dietz reveals and reveals without much
payoff, in my opinion. After sixteen bottles of alcohol had been emptied and
the characters threw caution to the wind (“why not” one says) to tell each
other off, it was nigh impossible to buy the feel good ending, especially the
line from the churchgoer that “These are the best people I know.” If the play
had been a sardonic romp, then that line would have worked and we would have
gone away laughing and thinking what a mess the world is in, if these are its
best and brightest.
Now for the good news. New Rep’s talented
actors know how to deliver funny lines and they give it their all, succeeding
in dribs and drabs. Lewis D. Wheeler brings a nifty Noel Coward style to the
piece and Robert Pemberton, a jovial cynicism. John Kooi almost makes the play
work all by himself with his hilarious, oddball cluelessness. The women,
unfortunately, are mired in Dietz’ peculiar, mean spirited, convoluted
dialogue.
Maybe it’s the fault of the sequester (which
didn’t make it into the play strangely enough although they used yesterday’s
date in the dialogue). I blame the government (which is my favorite line from
the movie, “Truly, Madly, Deeply”—a script which, by the way, marries satire to
sentiment perfectly.)
