Berkshire Bright Focus...

Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gilman. Directed by Phil Rice.

Reviewed by J. Peter Bergman

          Theresa Bedell’s one mistake is agreeing to a second get-together with her blind date, Tony. Set up by a friend she has met this man at a bar for a beer. He seems pleasant enough, even if their chemistry isn’t the sort that ignites or inflames the spirit. Still, he’s nice enough, cute in a way, a bit over-eager, but tolerable. So she agrees to dinner. Dinner doesn’t go as well and she tells him she doesn’t think they should see one another again. But that’s not good enough for him, and so it begins. An awkward first meeting extends into a situation that escalates quickly to hysteria. Theresa is in trouble and she knows it.

          There are elements in this tale that almost anyone in the audience can recognize and empathize with from events in their own lives. Everyone has known someone who is relentless. What becomes very clear is that the relentless ones are sometimes our own creations, the result of our own single mistakes. In this case, in "Boy Gets Girl," we discover that there is a pattern. That’s a shame, really, for if Theresa was the only known case of Tony’s stalking there would be a different sense about the man and the play. Author Rebecca Gilman takes the journey almost to the next step, to a third victim and a fourth, but she never really gets there and the final curtain, the moment of greatest fear, happens when lighting designer Robert Eberle provides us with the imprisoning view of Theresa as her world alters and narrows. We know, even if she doesn’t, that the stalker’s world is much wider than her own and that the fear will never leave her.

          Kathleen Carey plays Theresa. She plays her as someone with a troubled past hidden behind an intellectualism that hides any emotional possibilities. Her wide-eyed stares are easily associated with the victimized; even though she manages to be severely stoic in her work regime, Theresa, in her hands, is someone who will not be toyed with by anyone, not co-workers, bosses, or the subjects of her work, yet she is clearly vulnerable. She is a writer for a major magazine and she will not be diminished by the people she interviews. Carey does all this very well. Her emotional restraint is a slight problem in her dealing with Tony. There is very little fear in her voice or her face as the increasing hounding by him rattles the character. Where we do see her fears is in her body language and there Carey excels and makes us see the woman beneath the facade. In the final scene of the play the entire person emerges and it is clear that Theresa has those characteristics that a stalker seeks; she is terrified of her future and Carey lets us finally see what lies behind the mask. It is a slowly emerging characterization and it is chilling.

          Tony is played by Peter Diseth as a mild-mannered individual, pleasant but socially unable to suppress his disappointments. With a gesture that is overused in his few scenes, a fist pressed to his brow, we know his words aren’t his thoughts. It’s okay, but not the best solution to bringing us the mask of the man.

          Michael F. Hayes and Ryan Wesley Gilreath are the two men closest to Theresa at work, her editor and another staff writer. Hayes is Howard, the editor whose sympathies are with Theresa. Hayes is a quiet, supportive actor who makes Howard into the man anyone would feel safe around if there needed to be a human safe haven. He is very believable in a role that is almost too general and sweet. Gilreath, as the younger man who superficially resembles Tony and gives Theresa her most physically startling moments, is excellent. He delivers in every scene.

          Emily Crockett makes the most of her on-stage scenes as the ditsy, young secretary who inadvertently gives Tony access to her boss. As the policewoman assigned to the case Joan Faxon does what she can. The role is under-written and serves as an information source rather than as an interactive character in the tale. Gilman has not used her to the maximum, perhaps because the play, once the cop enters it, becomes more a documentary than a drama. With so many ways the story could turn, it remains focused on the double yellow line down the long, straight road.

          John Trainor turns in one of his best character performances here as Les Kennkat, a film director and producer being interviewed by Theresa for a magazine profile. He is a porn film guy and his whole attitude becomes a counterpoint to the Tony story. Trainor, expounding on large breasts, is hilarious and gives us a chance to escape for a few moments from the more serious side of this play. What is less explored is the concept of mono-mania, something Les shares with Tony. Both men are fixated on something female, but their different manipulations of their fixations is what makes them interesting. Curiously, even though Les is a secondary character, he has as much stage time as Tony. It’s just that his emotional and intellectual weight on Theresa’s yarn doesn’t have the same impact.

          Director Phil Rice has done very good work here, keeping the hysteria internalized, using an Abe Phelps set that is deceptively simple, yet transforms from one place to another behind a blaring jazz score that attempts to give a "film noir" essence to the piece. Jonathan Knipscher’s costumes serve the characters well, although the men’s ties and Les’ pants seem to center the play in another era, not our own.

          "Boy Gets Girl" is not the romance that its title would lead you to believe it would be. It is a strong, dark story about a woman who says "no" at the wrong time, instinctively one date too late. It is a good evening of theater, but don’t look over your shoulder as you leave the theater; you don’t want to give some future stalker the impression you’re vulnerable too.