Michael Hollinger’s “Red Herring” is a lighthearted tribute to love, as well as a clever satire of film noir movies of the late 1940s and early 1950s. As presented at 1st Stage in Tysons Corner, it takes off like a roller coaster, gathers momentum and continues at breakneck speed until it coasts to a gentle end.
Set in 1952, the convoluted plot intertwines three love stories: one involving Joe McCarthy’s daughter, Lynn (Katie Foster), who is engaged to Soviet spy James Appel (Lucas Beck); the second lovers are Soviet operative/fisherman Andrei Borchevsky (Jon Jon Jonson) and his landlady, Mrs. Kravitz (Amy Waldman); the third romance involves a hard-boiled detective, Maggie Pelletier (Anna Brungardt), and FBI man Frank Keller (David Winkler).
The action of “Red Herring” moves quickly from Boston to Wisconsin to the South Pacific, and although the set — designed by Jerry Kearns and Bob Krause — consists of no more than wooden crates and rudimentary set pieces, there is never any doubt where the action takes place.
Director Jessica Lefkow blends her actors into an extremely talented ensemble, allowing 18 parts to be performed by the six actors mentioned above. In addition to playing the perky, giggly Lynn, Foster portrays a drawling, lugubrious clerk at the marriage license bureau. The versatile Beck plays four parts, all with marvelous attention to detail.
Waldman is hilarious as the straight-talking Mrs. Kravitz, and also as the fussy Mrs. McCarthy and as the imperious owner of a bridal shop. Brungardt and Winkler seem made for their roles as gun-toting lovers.
For all its satirical aspects, there is a serious core to “Red Herring.” Hollinger himself calls it a “fable about marriage” and some of the play’s best lines come from Andrei, who likens marriage to a dory, which requires both partners to bail when there’s a leak.
In the end, Hollinger’s couples enter marriage without illusions. Perhaps that’s why, in the final scene, the complicated, farcical aspects of “Red Herring” disappear and what’s left is a sense that the play is really about love, not just three zany romances.
If you go
‘Red Herring’
Where: 1st Stage, 1524 Springhill Road, Tysons Corner
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, 4 and 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 5 p.m. Sunday
Info: $15 to $25; 703-854-1856, 1ststagespringhill.org
