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| Peter Wood and Paulo Araujo |
In the
theater, size really doesn’t matter. You can have the biggest, most lavish
venue and a budget that Croesus would envy and still board a clunker (certain
recent productions come to mind, but I shan’t mention them). Then you can have
a tight budget and a playing space in which you aren’t sure you can safely
swing a cat and still produce an engaging, delightful (and thoughtful) evening
of theater that satisfies on multiple levels. Such is the case with Square
One’s production of Joe DiPietro’s “Clever Little Lies,” directed by Tom
Holehan. Nested in the Stratford Academy, this black box theater, if nothing
else, points out how nuance and small gestures, easily seen and appreciated by an
audience that is just feet away from the performers, allow actors to ply their
craft without having to play to the back row.
The
play is essentially a domestic comedy that is driven by infidelity, real or
possibly imagined. It all begins when Bill, Sr. (Peter Wood) has just bested
his son, Billy (Paulo Araujo) in a tennis game and they are cooling off and
changing their clothes in the locker room. Bill senses that something is
bothering his son, so he presses and Billy finally breaks down and says he is
having an affair with Jasmine, a 20-year-old trainer at his gym. She is,
despite the fact Billy is married to Jane (Josie Kulp) and they have a
three-month-old daughter, the light of his life, especially when it comes to
sex. Bill is, quietly, nonplussed, but he promises he will not mention any of
this to Alice (the marvelous Peggy Nelson), Bill’s wife and Billy’s mother.
Well, that doesn’t work out very well because in DiPietro’s world. women just
know.
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| Josie Kulp and Peggy Nelson |
What
follows is a delightful cat and mouse game that involves Billy and Jane being
invited over by Alice for some cheese cake and talk about “this and that.” Here
witty dialogue and some superb acting take over as the two couples deal with
innuendo and, perhaps, an affair that Alice had decades ago.
One of
the things that is so enjoyable about this production, as alluded to above, is
that the actors can telegraph emotions, often quite humorously, without having
to beat drums or prance and pander to the audience. Cases in point: Kulp
expresses volumes just by widening her eyes, tensing her shoulders and pursing
her lips; Wood uses silence and a thousand-yard stare to emphasize his
confliction; Araujo seems to bulk-up as he tries to defend his affair (after
all, Jasmine is a trainer) and
Nelson, well, she just owns the stage as she confesses (is it a confession?) to
an affair. I’d be happy to bring
undergraduate drama students to this production just to have them take note of
how Nelson uses her hands.
I’ve
been bored, often yawning and contemplating sneaking out at intermission, while
attending some recent “big theater” productions, but there was never a moment
when I wanted to leave the confines of Square One. Holehan seems to have a
knack for selecting plays that focus on the nature of intimacy, the little
things that, in the end, mean so much. He also has the luxury of drawing on a
talent pool (Araujo and Kulp are new to Square One) that is professionally outstanding.
Yes,
Square One has, at times, stumbled a bit over its 29 years – what theater
company hasn’t? Yet, since I’ve been attending the performances for over ten years,
I have been consistently impressed by the quality of the acting and the
sensitivity of the direction. This is a small theater with a big heart, and
”Clever Little Lies” will make you smile, at times guffaw, and as you’re
driving home, make you think…and ponder the possibilities. You can’t ask more
of theater than that.
“Clever
Little Lies” runs through March 17. For tickets or more
information call 203-375-8778 or go to www.squareonetheatre.com.
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