Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Loneliness is the human condition, and there is only one way to escape it: through love. The Gallery Players' current production of Bus Stop is a touching -- if somewhat dated -- exploration of those who have the courage to risk falling in love, and those who do not.

William Inge's 1955 play features an odd-ball collection of loners and wanderers who are stranded together at a roadside cafe when their bus gets snowed in on the way to Denver. The rather slim plot concerns the love story of Cherie, a slightly-tarnished nightclub singer, and a young rancher named Bo Decker, who has carried her off with the intention of marrying and shacking up together on his ranch in Montana. The only flaw in Bo's plan is that he neglected to ask her opinion on the matter -- an omission which is initially quite discomfiting, but which fades from the mind as the focus of the story shifts from the abduction to the revelation of each character's circumstances.

Inge tends to sketch readily-recognizable types rather than write complex characters. Fortunately, the Gallery Players has assembled a strong ensemble of actors who create appealing characterizations. Through their work, they reveal that Inge has captured something essential about being human. Though the characters may not be deep, their experiences are common to us all.

John Blaylock gives a particularly moving performance as Dr. Gerald Lyman, an alcoholic, unemployed English professor with a penchant for underage girls. Blaylock is the picture of a New England intellectual, with his crisp diction and professorial gestures; he makes a delightful contrast with the more conventional Midwesterners who people the little roadside cafe. It is no wonder that straight-A high school student Elma (appealingly performed by Rebecca Dealy), who is too smart for the local boys, finds him fascinating. Dr. Lyman and Elma's impromptu performance of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, which awakens the doctor's conscience, is at once funny and moving.

Alisha Spielmann and Brad Lewandowski as Cherie and Bo have a more difficult task: their characters are more extreme and less plausible to a cynical modern audience. In the early moments of the play, the actors seem to be pushing. Fortunately, as they begin to reveal the inner lives of their characters, they become more three dimensional. When Bo and Cherie finally come to a mutual understanding and decide to take a risk on each other, it's a touching moment because their vulnerability is so human.

Set designer Edward Morris fills the stage with a box-set rendition of a 1950s roadside cafe. The blue-and-rust colored walls hung with a spare collection of memorabilia, counter with rotating stools, and white-plastic table and chairs seem as if they could be anywhere in America. Sound designer Neal J. Freeman provides good effects which help to create the world outside the cafe walls. Meredith Neal's costumes are attractive and carefully delineate character, although the smoky-purple slip-dress provided for Cherie seems strangely contemporary.

Director Heather Siobhan Curran has crafted a strong production which humorously reveals the folly and the loneliness of being human. Despite its age, Inge's Bus Stop can still speak to us all.