By Kevin Zimmerman
The 2014-15 theater season kicked off with the return of a breezy comedy and the premiere of a heavy-handed drama this past weekend in Queens.
Sandy Rustin’s Noël Coward-esque play, “The Cottage,” which debuted last fall at the Astoria Performing Arts Center, is back in the borough with several new cast members and a tighter script at Queens Theatre in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Rustin said she wanted to write a show that followed the structure of a Coward comedy, but provided meatier roles for the women in the cast.
And the three actresses — Michelle Federer as Sylvia, Bailey Frankenberg as Dierdre and Maria Couch as Marjorie — deliver deliciously funny performances that have been fleshed out into real characters.
Federer and Frankenberg, along with Justin Packard’s Clarke, represent the new additions to the cast. Whether tackling the part for the first time, or reprising the role, each of the actors does an excellent job of playing all of this straight, which only makes it that much funnier.
“The Cottage” is set in an English countryside cottage during the early 1920s, and follows the various infidelities of three couples, Beau and his wife, Marjorie; Clarke and his wife, Sylvia; and Dierdre and her newly minted ex-husband, Richard.
Beau is carrying on a one-night-a-year affair with his sister-in-law, Sylvia, while also finding time to fool around with Dierdre. His brother Clarke, Sylvia’s husband, is having an affair with Beau’s wife Marjorie. And Richard, may or may not be a serial killer.
The convoluted setup simply adds to the fun of the proceedings.
A couple of telegrams dashed off to unsuspecting spouses followed by a series of knocks on the door and yet another round of secrets revealed keep the show zipping along at breakneck speed.
Director Adam Dannheisser deserves praise for his light-handed touch. Too often comedies of this nature relay on slamming doors and screeching actors to remind the audience that what we are watching is funny. Dannheisser lets the comedy flow organically from the absurdity of the situation and the fact that each of these characters keeps a stiff upper lip and a tongue planted firmly in their cheeks.
And, as with the best of Coward, what happens is not as important as what is said.
Rustin offers plenty of comments about fidelity and the meaning of love. Amid the jokes and throw-away lines, these six characters question this strongest of emotions in all its forms. Does love equal contentment? Is there one true love for each of us? Or do we simply love who is convenient — sort of a relationship based on location?
Obviously people settle, whether from fear of being alone or simply because they have nothing better in the works. What we wish for is rarely what we get.
“Expectations only exist to be thwarted and replaced by reality,” Dierdre says at one point.
Heading into a drama about the suicide of a soldier recently home from war, one should expect a somber evening with plenty of tears and dozens of unanswered questions.
To that end, APAC succeeds with its world premiere of Cody Daigle’s “In the Bones.” Unfortunately its successes rarely go beyond that, providing the audience with an unsatisfying experience.
Told through a series of video flashbacks interspersed between live scenes that move the plot along one year at a time, “In the Bones” explores the nature of love and forgiveness.
When gay soldier Luke, played by Tyler Gattoni and only seen in the video segments, returns from his second tour of Afghanistan, he hides behind his new camera phone filming his mother, sister and boyfriend and constantly asking each of them to say something nice about him.
Luke needs reassurance that despite the terrible things he did as a soldier, he is still a good person worthy of their love.
It is not a bad concept on which to hang a drama, but Daigle is not able to move beyond the original good idea.
Instead, his characters struggle with clichéd situations and dialogue.
From the moment the first live scene opens and Luke’s grieving mother Dee, played by Victoria Bundonis, is sitting atop her bed in only a bra and half-slip because she “can’t breathe,” you know we are going somewhere we have been so many times before.
Daigle cobbles together one clichéd scene after another — Luke springs boyfriend Ben on his mother at a family dinner; Luke carries the burden of a terrible and tragic act from his time in battle; characters show their grief by shouting at each other and saying things like, “No, you don’t get to say whatever you want.”
Thankfully, a couple of outstanding performances manage to provide a few bright spots.
Mel House nicely captures the essence of free-spirited Aunt Kate. Bringing some much-needed comic relief to her scenes, House expertly portrays a woman in mourning who tends to make the action and her nephew Luke’s suicide all about her.
The standout, though, is definitely Emily Koch as Luke’s sister Chloe.
Koch takes us through Chloe’s grieving process, including the obvious pain of losing Luke as well as the more subtle sorrow caused by a mother who is no longer there for her.
As Chloe speaks with one of Luke’s former Army buddies, she learns her brother’s tragic battlefield secret, but she also discovers Luke, just like she, was an artist who filled notebooks with his sketches.
At that point Chloe’s tears are not just for her dead brother, but also for this young man who she really did not know.
Delivered by Koch, this quiet scene is just one of a handful that rings true and raw and fresh.
If you Go
“The Cottage”
When: Through Nov. 16
Where: Queens Theatre, Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Website: www.queenstheatre.org
“In the Bones”
When: Through Nov. 22
Where: Astoria Performing Arts Center, Astoria
Website: www.apacny.org
