BTC Winds Down Summer with Love Song

The Burbage Theatre Company, now fully ensconced in their downtown location at Aurora, is winding down the summer in Providence with a brief Repertory presentation. Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp is being alternately performed with Love Song by John Kolvenback. I attended Love Song, a charming, energetic, yet somewhat unsettling dark comedy.

The space at 276 Westminster Street is open and inviting. The audience set-up for the show is in the round. There is still a fully stocked bar with tables and chairs in the front of Aurora. One may also take a drink into the theater space. A few sparse set pieces are moved about on the stage to convey the time and place and tone of the play. At the start we see the lonely Beane (James Lucey) sitting by himself, sighing. Beane sits in the quiet under the light of a single bulb hanging loosely from a stand over his chair. He is clearly a lost soul. It seems for a moment we may be in for an elongated, dreary existential evening of morose vignettes. But the silence is broken with the noisy chattering of Beane’s sister, Joan (Allision Crews) and her husband Harry (Jonathan Fisher, Jr.).

It appears that Joan has fired yet another intern from her work, for what seems to be no good reason. Harry seems rooted firmly in reality, trying to get to the “why” of her decision. Joan is wound tighter than a child’s music box, threatening to keel over and cease running. The husband and wife clash, while Beane quietly enters the room. He is not acknowledged until the couple needs a third voice to settle their vague dispute. His answers to their questions are like a non-sequitur gag. Joan and Harry aren’t quite sure what to make of Beane, although his sister is very protective of him.

Fisher has a nice moment of teetering from calm sanity to rage while trying to administer a type of personality test to Beane. It is reminiscent of trying to argue with a 3-year-old. It all makes sense to the child. With just a touch of “theater of the absurd,” we are never sure if Beane is being truthful, evasive or simply making things up.

James Lucey as Beane is a frustrating delight. Lucey loves to inhabit his characters and obviously enjoys getting fully into the their physicality. It serves him well in this role that ranges from silence to shouting from the rooftops. In the first act we only see one side of Joan. But as Act II begins, we get to see Crews stretch her acting vocabulary into a ridiculous “slouch” of character, and a more ridiculous attempt at phoning sick into work.

The real surprise twist in this tale happens when Molly (Rachel Perry), an angry thief, scares Beane by being in his chair, waiting to taunt him, before escaping with Beane’s belongings. The appearance of Molly changes not only Beane, but everyone around him. Suddenly Beane can taste his food and smell wonderful smells. Perry has grown from a college student to a dynamite actress who can command the audience’s attention. It adds to the farcical tone of the piece for Molly to be the “heavy,” while being small in stature. She’s is the key that shows us what love is really about.

The Burbage Theatre Company is now a 501c3 non-profit. For more information go to burbagetheatre.org. “Love Song” runs through September 6th. It’s the perfect show for a late summer evening.