The estimable Michael Weller, who began his career with sprawling, large-cast dramas (Moonchildren, The Ballad of Soapy Smith), has lately taken to writing two-character plays that put disintegrating marriages under the microscope.
His Side Effects, which opened this spring in New York and now has its South Florida premiere at Plantation’s Mosaic Theatre, is linked to his earlier, better work, 50 Words, seen locally last season at GableStage. Both plays take us inside precarious relationships, beyond the public images to the searing reality of couples stressed to the breaking point. But 50 Words felt authentic and organic, while Side Effects feels layered with needless artificial soap opera trappings.
It is the story of Hugh Metz (Jim Ballard), operator of a family-owned Midwest bicycle factory with aspirations of political office. His chief impediment to that goal is his wife Lindy (Deborah L. Sherman), whose bipolar condition makes her an unpredictable liability, particularly when she refuses to take her meds.
The challenges faced by a political family mid-campaign, needing to project an image of surface normalcy, is enough to hang a play upon. But Weller tosses is dueling extramarital affairs for the Metzes, as well as a melodramatic life-threatening car crash involving their sons. That’s enough for any one family to deal with, even if the wife were not bonkers.
Sherman attacks the role of Lindy with relish, accentuating every tic and compulsive mannerism. It is an exceedingly self-conscious manic-depressive performance, way too showy for my taste. Ballard, like his character Hugh, has difficulty reacting to Lindy, but he does an admirable job vacillating between anger at his wife and animal attraction to her.
Douglass Grinn provides a richly textured, monochromatic gray living room set. In a play like Side Effects, though, one look at the scenic design and you know it is just a matter of time before it will be trashed.
SIDE EFFECTS, Mosaic Theatre, 12200 W. Broward Blvd., Plantation. Through Sunday, Oct. 9. Tickets: $15-$39.50. Call: (954) 577-8243.
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Many young writers, even the truly talented ones, seem content to choose a playwright they admire and spin knockoffs of their work. But Tarell Alvin McCraney, a product of the Miami-Dade public schools who has been acclaimed in New York, London and beyond, is a genuine original.
South Florida theaters have been relatively slow in bring McCraney’s output to their audiences, but Coral Gables’ GableStage has stepped up and given him an exemplary show with his The Brothers Size, a spare but lyrical dance-drama in a production that the author directs.
It is a simple, but iconic tale of two siblings who have taken different paths in life. Ogun Size industriously runs an auto repair shop, while his younger brother Oshoosi is footloose and rudderless, having just done time in prison. Those differences are played out on a vast empty stage, but with a poetry and an exoticism that gives their story epic resonances.
If Ogun struggles to put his brother on a path towards an honest, productive life, that struggle becomes a tug-of-war with the introduction of ex-con Elegba, who served time with Oshoosi. It becomes a battle of words, movement and occasionally song, with nothing less than Oshoosi’s soul at stake.
Although the story is set in the Louisiana bayou country, McCraney lets the play float free with references and rituals of the African tradition. The evening begins with a ceremonial procession of the actors, accompanied by drums and stylized recitations. This should be enough to turn an audience apprehensive, but relax, open your ears and your heart to a production that becomes increasingly engrossing and accessible.
All three cast members — Sheaun McKinney (Ogun), Ryan George (Oshoosi), Teo Castellanos (Elegba) — are athletic and dancer-like, yet are able to carry the play’s text-heavy monologues. McKinney and George quickly and easily establish a brotherly rapport, which is to say an instinctual closeness and a natural antagonism. If Castellanos manages to steal our attention in his scenes, that is because he has the compelling serpentine role.
McCraney’s voice may not appeal to those who need linear storytelling or naturalistic theatrics. But the way he tells his saga is unmistakably compelling and artful.
THE BROTHERS SIZE. GableStage at the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables. Through Sunday, Oct. 2. Tickets: $37.50-$47.50. Call: (305) 445-1119.