Kidstuff
Certain plays arrive summed up - and done in - by their own titles. Kidstuff is one such work. Though it contains all sorts of funny, original scenes, overall it’s sunk by a puerile premise.
Eve (over-shticky Sarah Nina Hayon) is having a quarter-life crisis. In group therapy sessions - the most rewarding segments of the play - she traces her malaise to her betrayal at the hands of a high-school boyfriend: after that turning point, she feels, nothing ever went quite right. The "therapy" - under the smug, guru-like supervision of one Lou (Peter O’Connor) - takes the form of psychodrama: other group members act out the generally self-rationalizing retrospective script that Eve has provided.
It takes only a minute to get the gist - and to recover from shock over how bad these actors are. It’s intentional - and, in fact, it’s no mean feat, acting the role of a really bad actor. Sharon Freedman, playing Sarah, a compulsive nurturer and cake-baker, is especially adept, as is Vincent Madero as the group sycophant, who clearly aspires to step into Lou’s shoes.
All very well - and the play would probably provide nonstop laughs if it stuck to the therapy sessions. It’s when the playwright, Edith Freni, steps out to examine Eve’s "real" life that the play bogs down. A startling coincidence is rarely a good dramaturgical omen, and it’s not one here, when Eve, in the process of pawning her recently deceased mother’s jewelry, runs into that errant boyfriend, Chet (unremarkable Justin Blanchard), who just happens to be buying an engagement ring for the very girl he left Eve for, way back when.
There’s a nifty exchange when they first meet: "Your suit!" "What about it?" "You’re wearing one." However, Chet - as underwritten and blandly acted - remains a cipher, and the plot, perhaps intentionally, veers into clumsy absurdism when Eve succeeds in reclaiming the object of her affections.
Sheer wish-fulfillment, perhaps, and it might be fun to backtrack to group and toy with the notion that the outcome could be a fantasy. Instead, the play ends so abruptly, you’re left wondering if they forgot to run the second act.
Freni is a writer to watch, but the Partial Comfort company has not done her any favors in rushing this half-baked script to the stage.
Kidstuff runs through September 27. For schedule, ticket prices, and more information visit the Partial Comfort Productions website.
