The Seeing Place Theater is exploring “Fantasy vs Reality:
The Games Our Minds Play” this season, and they have opened with a wonderful
show, Love Song by John
Kolvenbach. Despite the overarching
theme of the season, Love Song is rooted very much in the reality of emotions
and humanity.
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The show is a relatively straightforward look at the life of Bean,
played by Brandon Walker. Bean is a
depressed young man, sleepwalking through the daily grind. He is minimalist to an absurd degree, as
noted by the woman who attempts to rob him only to find a nearly empty
apartment.
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Bean’s sister Joan is, in many ways, the emotional opposite
of Bean. Joan, well played by Marnie
Klar, is a detail oriented, hyper organized, over excitable businessperson. She rules the office with an iron fist and a
short temper. Her husband Harry, played
calmly by Jason Wilson, seems to manage her by passivity - letting her anxiety
and control blow up and then dissipate naturally. Joan and Harry are only people
Bean interacts with, but even with them Bean seems oddly removed from conversations
he is part of.
.
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| Brandon Walker and Erin Cronican in Love Song |
Enter Molly, played by Erin Cronican, a burglar with an
attitude. Bean arrives home to find
Molly waiting for him in his nearly empty apartment. She questions
Bean directly on the way he lives, and his answers surprise them both. Molly leaves with his pitiful possessions,
but is later drawn back to his apartment.
Forced to open up, Bean grows infatuated and excited by Molly. Bean’s outlook changes as he begins to
experience life instead of merely existing.
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Bean’s enthusiasm motivates Joan to reexamine her choices,
for the better. Harry and Joan are
infected by Bean’s newfound zest for life.
But complications arise when Joan and Harry try to meet Molly.
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Love Song is a wonderful show, but it starts off a little
shaky. Bean and Joan are defined too
broadly as damaged before settling into believability.
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Early on, Brandon Walker’s Bean vacillates between being
withdrawn and passive to angry and aggressive in his apartment. Bean’s sudden enjoyment of life is a little
too manic. It is a frustrating because
once the characterization settles in Bean’s transformation delivers a beautiful
payoff. On a side note, the sets by Joe
Arnow work excellently to help define Bean’s neuroses. Mr. Walker silent interactions with the sets and lights convey the fragility of Bean.
.
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| Marnie Klar and Jason Wilson exploring freedom in Love Song |
Marnie Klar’s Joan is well played, but also over written at
the start of the show. The character starts
as excessively Type-A personality. Joan’s
journey would be more believable if frazzled frustration showed through instead
of manic intensity. It is a choice of
the playwright that Ms. Klar almost makes work.
Once Joan’s foundation shifts a little, Ms. Klar is excellent in
delivering a nuanced performance.
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Ms. Cronican’s character Molly benefits from lovely writing,
and she gives a nicely restrained performance.
A burglar that stirs emotion in wounded psyche, and then responds to it,
is a tough act to render believably.
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Love Song is sweet and funny, as
well as a fascinating look at the power of emotion. So much of the story and acting is great,
that the occasional odd choices are frustrating. Once the story starts to move, the play flows beautifully.
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Love Song is being presented through
December 9th at a low price of $12.00.
Love Song
Playwright: John Kolvenbach
Director: Erin Cronican
Cast: Erin Cronican, Marnie Klar, Javan Nelson, Brandon
Walker, Jason Wilson
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