All John Patrick Shanley needs is a character or two to create a play. In “Savage In Limbo,” at MetroStage, he has five characters and a situation so tense, within several minutes it seems to be in danger of burning up the stage. The scene where Shanley puts his characters is a New York bar that has seen better days. Set designer Robbie Hayes has created a shabby, dark room where the plaster on the walls is peeling away, showing exposed brick. The tables and chairs are black, the bar is dark and worn.
At the start of the play, bartender Murk (Sasha Olinick) and his girlfriend, April White (Jenna Sokolowski), are near the bar. April has passed out, and Murk is trying to revive her. The place is otherwise empty until Denise Savage (Natascia Diaz) enters, an energetic, restless soul, looking for people and talk. She has not come to drink, she has come to “think out loud” with others.
| Onstage |
| ‘Savage in Limbo’ |
| Where: MetroStage, 1201 N. Royal St., Alexandria |
| When: Through Oct. 16 |
| Info: $25 to $50; 800-548-9044; metrostage.org |
No sooner has Denise aired her needs and made her exasperation with life clear than the bar becomes home to a very different type, Linda Rotunda (Veronica del Cerro), who is distraught because she is having boyfriend trouble. Linda is so upset that she weeps and involves Denise in her emotional trauma.
Soon the three women, all 32, realize that they went to school together, remember what they once wanted to be and realize how far from their dreams they have fallen.
Eventually Linda’s boyfriend, Tony (Michael Kevin Darnall), arrives and reveals in a hilarious monologue why he wants to change his life routine, offering an explanation that, as Darnall puts it in an oddball, meandering way, seems to make sense. Darnall is well-cast as the would-be-cool Tony.
“Savage in Limbo” is about facing the present and the future, but it’s primarily Denise who honestly assesses her problems, her loneliness. April wants to stay drunk, Murk wants to marry her, Linda wants Tony back and Tony wants information about the world.
But in her wild fantasies, it’s clear that Denise won’t be satisfied with any simple fixes to her situation. Diaz is stunning as this intense young woman who knows she is on a cliff and doesn’t want to die there, who howls to anyone who can hear, “This is not life.”
Del Cerro is equally good as the more conventional Linda. She has the Bronx accent and attitude down perfectly. Olinick and Sokolowski are excellent in their smaller but crucial roles.
Director Lise Bruneau has taken a beautifully crafted script and turned it into a solid and very affecting production, full of humor, pathos and excellent acting.
