AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

The marketing people at Primary Stages might want to consider a new slogan for their promotional materials. They could call the off-Broadway organization "the theater that loves theater." After all, the company just concluded a run of A.R. Gurney's Buffalo Gal, a misty-eyed homage to Chekhov and live performance set in an Albany non-profit, and three seasons ago it was Terrence McNally's Dedication Or the Stuff of Dreams, a play about the travails of a children's theater troupe. Last night, the theater opened Love Child at their home at 59E59 Theaters, another valentine to the theater. Written and performed by Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton, "Child" is a two-hander that explores the sense of family that's created in the process of putting on a show.

Jenkins and Stanton perform, delightfully, all of the roles in "Child," which centers on Joel (Jenkins), an actor/producer/director in New York, who runs a small non-profit that specializes in updated versions of the classics. Their current production is a modern retelling of Euripides' Ion, and it's being performed in a converted sausage factory in the wilds of Brooklyn. Among the folk who are taking part in the show are Joel's faux-British girlfriend Maggie, a spitfire Latina with dreams of a career as a standup comic and a singer, and a self-medicating middle-aged actor who longs for the past glories of the avant garde theater of the 1960s. These three characters are played to comic perfection by Stanton, working under the sure hand of director Carl Forsman.

The stakes for the opening night of Joel's play are higher than he might expect. His agent has invited the producers of a television series that Joel's auditioned for. These West Coast bigwigs are in the audience as are the crusty agent (again Stanton) and her neurotic and high-maintenance assistant (whom Jenkins plays with visible glee). The action, which unfolds on a stage that's bare except for a half-dozen chairs, flips back and forth between what's happening on stage, which rapidly turns farcical, and the events transpiring in the audience. It's sort of like a two-character Noises Off that eventually reaches the point of hilarity after two sluggish opening scenes.

While Jenkins and Stanton may wish to consider slight revisions to their script, there's not enough to be said about their performances and their ability to transform with lightning-like rapidity and precision between the many characters in the play. They accomplish this through changes in body language and voice, wearing just basic street clothes. Changes in location as the script barrels between scenes and locations are ably indicated in Jeff Croiter and Grant Yeager's lighting design.

It's also rather touching, ultimately, because mirroring the updated Ion, all about the reconciliation of a mother with a child she'd abandoned just after his birth, are the events that transpire between the performers and the people who are watching them. Bonds are tested, broken and, in the end, renewed. There's much to be savored in this heartfelt comedy about theater and the family it creates, onstage and off.

---- Andy Propst

Love Child continues through November 18 at 59E59 Theaters (59 E. 59th Street). Performances are Tuesday at 10:00pm; Wednesday at 8:00pm, and Sunday at 2:00 and 5:00pm (except November 16 when the performances are 5:00 and 7:00pm). A Wednesday matinee is scheduled for November 19 at 2:00pm. Tickets are $15.00 and can be purchased by calling 212-279-4200 or by visiting www.ticketcentral.com. Further information is available online at www.PrimaryStages.org.