'What They Have'
By Don Shirley
A Hollywood power couple (Matt Letscher, Marin Hinkle) and their arty, less affluent friends (Kevin Rahm, Nancy Bell), all of them hovering close to the age of 40, take turns envying each other over issues of money, creative fulfillment, and parenthood, then finding the tables turned, not necessarily happily. Kate Robin’s script is saturated with the kind of expressive conversations that might be on prestigious TV (she’s a Six Feet Under veteran) but that cut a little deeper and go on at considerably greater length. Everyone speaks so articulately that there isn’t much of the dramatic tension that arises when words fail. However, if you’re in the frame of mind for this kind of play, you’re in luck – the elegantly shifting designs of Chris Fields’s staging and the lived-in performances from all the actors mitigate incipient feelings of heady claustrophobia. The play is structured much more cohesively than Robin’s Anon, seen in L.A. last year.
South Coast Repertory, Segerstrom Stage, 655 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa, (714) 708-5555. Southcoastrepertory.com. Tue.-Wed. at 7:30 p.m.; Thur.-Fri. at 8 p.m.; Sat. at 2:30 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Sun. at 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Closes May 4.
Published: 04/16/2008
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