The two plays currently at 1st Stage represent one third of George Walker’s six-play cycle, “Suburban Motel.” Both take place in a crummy, anonymous motel that could be anywhere in America. In each play, Sean Urbankte’s set includes mildewed, dirty yellow walls, a double bed, a desk and a large window revealing the outside hall. Cory Frank’s lighting emphasizes the starkness of the rooms.
If you go
“Suburban Motel”
Where: 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Road, McLean
When: Through July 3
Info: $15 to $25; 703-854-1856; 1stStageTysons.org
The first play, “Featuring Loretta,” features a dysfunctional family in which the family is present only over the phone. Whether the caller is her sister, her mother, or her dead husband’s parents, Loretta (Alice Gibson) has trouble getting people to stop telling her what to do. She’s broke, pregnant and wants to make her decisions for herself. But two men want to determine Loretta’s future. There’s the hapless Dave (Zachary Fernebok), who is utterly inept but head over heels in love with Loretta. And there’s Michael (Brian Razzino), the consummate sleaze who envisions himself the perfect “agent” for Loretta, selling her beauty in sex movies. The two men immediately hate each other and battle it out for Loretta’s favor.
Sophie (Kristen Garaffo) the Russian maid, weaves in and out of the play, offering the only real emotional attachment Loretta has. The cast of “Featuring Loretta” is extremely talented and makes the cartoonish characters believable. Jason Schlafstein’s snappy direction keeps the comedy moving quickly.
Unfortunately, Walker wrote too much into the play. The relationships between all the characters are outlined early in the plot, as is Loretta’s ability to impose order on the two losers who adore her, so it feels as though the play goes on way too long.
In the second play, “Risk Everything,” Carol (Leigh Jameson) is helped into a motel room by her daughter, Denise (Nevie Brooks). Carol’s eye is blackened, her ankle bandaged. Carol is a gambler who believes that if you’re not willing to take risks, life is not worth living, and her definition of “risks” is very, very broad. Her daughter, who has lost her child because of risky behavior, is more cautious.
Denise’s husband, R.J. (Ryan Tumulty), an ex-con, is also careful, a man who has given up crime for nature shows on television. Carol has no respect for either of them and tries to enlist them to get the man who beat her up. Things look up for Carol when Michael — yes, that Michael (Razzino) who has been making porn movies next door — happens into the room and is drawn to her, bruises and all.
Skillfully directed by David Winkler, who is sensitive to the pacing of Walker’s writing, “Risk Everything” is a denser play than “Featuring Loretta,” and it deals more sincerely with issues of trust and honesty. At times it becomes a study in psychology, as insecure characters try to find out what the other characters think of them.
Although Walker has slightly overwritten the second play, too, there’s plenty to enjoy in “Risk Everything,” from the bizarre plot to the quirky characters to the first-rate acting. Jameson is extraordinary as the crooked Carol, with her addiction to gambling and Jack Daniels. Brooks is quietly tortured as her long-suffering daughter; Denise’s ironic monologue in praise of money is a high point of the play. Tumulty is delightful as the gentle R.J., offended at the horrid way human beings treat each other, unlike the more civilized long-horned sheep he watches on television. And Razzino adds hilarity with his ever-present Supreme Machismo. Particularly in this half of “Suburban Motel,” Walker proves his ability to capture an absurd vision of humanity’s darker side, as it flirts with violence, manipulation and greed even as it begs for peace and gentleness.
