Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

A wonderful new play by Nick Norman is being given a very, very brief run at the Red Room Theater. If at all possible, see this production, but be assured, this play will be back. We meet the first of the Edwards children, Alex, the middle child and younger brother after a late rising. He's having trouble formulating a life plan and can expend an hour deciding whether to brush his teeth first. Alex is also in love - with a girl who won't return his calls. His response is to send her photos of his "assets" to remind her of what she is missing. But it is Alex who is missing, longing for that place where sex and homesickness coincide. Spurned and aimless, he is the perfect one to make mischief. Alex is beautifully portrayed by Joe Stipek, at once picking at others' sores while exposing his own fragile needs. Much of Alex' commentary , funny, ironic, mean or vile isn't taken in, within the context of the play, but it's interesting and oh so true. He can scald and inflict pain and one just takes it, like the vagaries of life.

The play takes place as older brother Randy (Justin Badger) is coming home on leave. Mum and Gran ( fully realized by Laura Heidinger and a saucy Janet Prince) excitedly await his arrival. They also carry torches of their own: Dad is long dead and Charles was Gran's perfect love, lost before she'd married . Sweet sister Lucy (Liz Eckert) has recently discovered boys and Randy, believe it or not, is in love with Sylvia who looks exactly like Mum.

At the happy gathering, Randy announces he has been posted to a war zone, where he fully expects to die or be blown into parts. Alice( Mum) takes to her bed with a bottle and in an endearingly Freudian bedroom scene, Randy confesses to his mother that he has knocked up Sylvia and will start a home of his own. This interestingly can save him from combat. Meanwhile, Gran is reliving her early days and unwittingly suggests to Alex the ultimate solution for Randy's safety and future.

While everything sounds better with an English accent, Nick Norman has a true gift for dialogue, variously lyrical and comic. Kudos too to director Rachel Chavkin who has firmly heightened the reality of the play while teasing out its extraordinary humanity, like a faceted gemdiffracting its light into component colors.