'Scene'
may be shallow, but cast makes us care
By Julie York Coppens
Theatre Critic
Charlotte Observer, Saturday, June 14, 2008
Here’s
what’s amazing about “The Scene”. It almost
never feels like one.
The characters in this funny-sad New York comedy
by Theresa Rebeck say and do outrageous things.
They beg, lie, grandstand and seduce, sometimes
all at once. They suck down enough tequila and
vodka to inebriate fraternities, they fornicate
athletically enough to require chiropractic
care, they apologize with phrases like “my bad –
my total bad!” and philosophize thus: “If you
lose, like, knowing who you are...then you’re
lost.”
Yeah, whatever.
Still, this season-finale production at Actor’s
Theatre of Charlotte achieves an impressive
degree of emotional truth. Director Ann Marie
Costa and her fine cast actually make us care
about the unlovable, often unbelievable players
in Rebeck’s tale of an out-of-work actor in a
self-destructive tailspin.
We feel for Charlie (ATC stalwart Brian
Robinson), an artist with just enough integrity
to disdain the showbiz grail he so desperately
seeks. We want his hard-driving wife Stella
(welcome newcomer Allison Lamb) to ditch her
soul-killing job in daytime TV and find bliss
with an adopted Chinese baby. And we want the
couple’s lonely friend Lewis (the reliable Dave
Blamy) to get laid.
As for Clea, the toxic 20-something from Ohio
who tempts Charlie to his ruin, we can’t help
wishing even she might reform, find some measure
of herself beyond fabulousness, choose some
life-pursuit more honorable than homewrecking.
(Davidson College senior Kelsey Formost is every
bit as gorgeous and smart as this tricky role
requires.)
How can all this staged self-indulgence strikes
us as genuinely sympathetic? It’s almost—as Clea
might say, in an attempt to sound intelligent at
a party—surreal.
There’s a lot of talk in “The Scene,” much of it
hilarious, about what’s real, what’s surreal and
what’s maddeningly unreal about life in
latter-day Manhattan. It’s a land of low-carb
pasta and no-show celebrities, of hangers-on and
wanna-bes, where social scenes migrate from one
hot neighborhood to the next.
If Costa and company don’t always capture this
world persuasively, the production broadcasts
its own fakery with pride: Designer Chip Decker
won applause at the start of Wednesday’s opening
night, when his interior set revolved to reveal
a snazzy urban balcony. Smooth touch.
In this play of profound superficiality,
Robinson and his fellow actors have dug beneath
the surface, finding four humans worthy of our
empathy. Truth established, this cast might now
play more freely, as in that acrobatic sex
scene, with the preposterous overlays Rebeck’s
script provides. Artiface this bald takes
bigger, bolder choices.
“The Scene” couldn’t be more real. But it could
be more fun.
The Scene
A hot young thing from Ohio upsets
Manhattan’s delicate social ecology in Theresa
Rebeck’s satire. Mature. About 2 hours.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Today and various times
through June 28.
WHERE: Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, 650
E. Stonewall St.
ADMISSION: $23 - $28; 7:30 p.m. June 18
performance is pay-what-you-can.
DETAILS: 704-342-2251; or
www.actorstheatrecharlotte.org
