Although he must have been absent in playwriting class the day they covered creating enticing titles, Stephen Karam demonstrates his skill with contemporary dialogue and the angst of today’s youth in the breezy, comic Speech and Debate.
While more lightweight than GableStage’s usual fare, the production demonstrates the company’s continued interest in new talent — introducing Karam to South Florida as well as three fresh-faced performers who have recently graduated from Miami’s New World School of the Arts.
They play unpopular misfits in a Salem, Ore. High school, geeks who have gravitated to the debate club and taken it over by default. The club and the school newspaper become forums for their crusades, particularly against Salem’s conservative mayor, who opposes gay adoption but apparently has homosexual designs on underage boys himself.
Then there is Mr. Healey, the school’s drama teacher, who has made sexual advances on both male characters — online chat-obsessed, openly gay Howie (David Dearstyne) and Solomon (Ryan Didato), an investigative reporter wannabe. The female apex of the debate club triangle, a little dynamo named Diwata (Jackie Rivera), also has it in for Healey. Not for his unprofessional indiscretions, but because he cannot see that she deserves to be given the leading role in the school play.
Healey may not see it, but GableStage theatergoers will. Rivera has genuine star quality, a charismatic bundle of energy with terrific comic timing and an underlying vulnerability. These qualities are particularly evident in Diwata’s hyperactive rendition of her musical version of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and a nude (well, with flesh-colored leotard) interpretive dance. Karam certainly has some offbeat comic notions, but it is the way Rivera puts them across that is most memorable.
By comparison, Dearstyne and Didato come off far blander than desirable. In the only two visible adult roles, a put-upon teacher and a clueless reporter, Patti Gardner manages to make something of the sketchy assignments. In a rare sidestep, artistic director Joe Adler hands over the staging chores to Amy London, who makes some headway in giving the episodic tale some dramatic shape.
The play’s focus is on awkward teens, but the script is more disjointed and awkward than necessary. The alienation of youth is a common theme of young writers, and Speech and Debate does update the topic with references to texting, Google and podcasts. The script feels up to the minute, but it seems likely to become dated soon.
Still, Karam is a writer to keep an eye on and Rivera is the reason to see the production at GableStage.
SPEECH AND DEBATE, GableStage, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables. Through July 18. Tickets: $37.50 – $45. Call: (305) 445-1119.