Soul Mates: Original, Provocative, Fabulously Acted

I saw this play last night, wrote this review in 30 minutes. The play's last two nights are tonight and tomorrow night. Time is of the essence.

Soul Mates
Boston Center for the Arts
Black Box Theater next to the Calderwood Pavilion
March 21, 2014
Approximate Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes with no intermission
Cost: $30, $15 for Seniors


Look, I’ll write more about this by tomorrow but right now I want to tell you one thing. Get yourself down to the Boston Center for the Arts Black Box Theater next to the Calderwood Pavilion and see "Soul Mates". The last two shows are tonight and tomorrow.

This was the biggest bang for my buck I've had at the theater all season.

Funny, touching, poignant, provocative, the four actors, in pairs of two for each of the eight vignettes, are all in for every single minute. During the 90-minute play, I laughed, I winced, I had a lump in my throat, and I stood up to cheer at the end of the play. All four actors, no matter how they are paired, connect solidly with each other. The premise of the play, acted out in each scene, is that a soul mate is not that one solitary person on the planet who resonates with you in that deep, enduring, satisfying way.

Playwright Kirsten Knisely believes that and, by the end of the play, so do I.  We can feel completed by a friend, a lover, a family member. Love, loyalty, and friendship, even if it is for a brief but important period in your life, add up to be moments in time with a kindred spirit, a soul mate. It doesn't have to an epiphany with a spectacular 'Ah Hah!" halo surrounding it. Whether you acknowledge it in the moment or with the benefit of hindsight, you were loved and accepted by someone who saw you exactly as you are.

From the first of the eight vignettes to the last, the play is intensely acted, occasionally electrifying, often touching or wildly funny, and always feels right and true. Watching the actors, it was easy for me to recognize my own awkward moments of feeling embarrassed or shy,  or lacking the words to express my true self when trying to break through emotionally with a friend or lover… and the soaring sense of relief, joy, and satisfaction when I became myself rather than the person I thought I should be.

I’ll say more about the actors, directing, lighting, stage managing, and will probably edit this first draft in a post tomorrow.

Right now all I want to tell you is that this play is in the lead for my choice of "Hidden Gem of the Season."
++++++++++++++++++++++

POST SCRIPT written a week after seeing the play…

The Cast (playing multiple characters):
Angela Keefe, Laura Menzie, Joe Kidawski, Brett Milanowski

Playwright: Kirsten Knisely
Director: Caroline L. Price (www.carolinelprice.com)

Producing Artistic Director/Set Design: Danielle Lucas
Props Design: Paul Ezzy
Sound Design/Publicity Photos: Vincent  Morreale
Costume Design: Julia Dauber
Graphic Design: Matthew Scheumann
Program Design: Jeremy Goodman
Stage Manager: Samantha MacArthur

Playing roles from kids to adults, gay and straight, love struck and love struck down, is challenging for any actor. Some of the vignettes hit the mark more squarely than others but there are kernels of truth to be explored in each.  

Laura Menzie and Angela Keefe solidly set the play’s premise (the possibility of having more than one soul mate/pivotal character in life) with great chemistry as two pre-teen girls. The audience lit up with laughter when the two broke into a song and dance rendition of “How Will I Know?”

Angela Keefe managed to consistently inhabit every character she played, from grade school kid to adult. She choreographed the dancing in “An Awesome Dancer” to boot. Director Caroline L. Price does a fine job of holding together a play spanning years 1946 – 2011. Brett Milanowski’s mugging to portray emotional discomfort is just right in some scenes, overdone in a couple of others because he has the range to suggest it without the exaggerated facial expressions. Joe Kidawski and Milanowski are at the top of their game in the vignette “Boys Will Be Boys.” Kidawski and Angela Keefe shine in “The Arrangement.” Laura Menzie is affecting as she acknowledges her complicity in a relationship that came apart (The Beginning To An End.")

It’s amazing what a company on a shoestring budget can accomplish with sets. All this play needed was an 8x10 red rug, a few chairs, a blanket, anda few all-purpose wooden boxes. The actors and our imaginations do the rest. The audience spanned 20s to 70s, good to see several non-white spectators in the crowd (the Black Box Theater seated 70 for the show, was almost full).

This was the kind of production that reminds me that Boston is an evolving theater city with lots of small, unheralded companies daring to try new material or remix standards. It may be unevenly acted or produced and has its share of successes and failures but it is vital, undaunted by lack of attention from major outlets, and driven to create stimulating work.

Comments

[Ann Baker]

And this is the kind of review that gets people to go to the theatre. Good stories well told, that make you feel and think.

This is one of the best reviews you've ever written. Make sure you send a copy of this review to the artistic director of the company.

[Kim Cromwell]

Sent this to two dear friends and they're trying to get tix! Thanks! (sent to me Saturday morning...)

[Caroline L. Price]

Thank you so Paul! This means so much to me and BAT. I've cc'd Danielle Lucas above. She is the AD of BAT.

I appreciate you sharing this with me very much.

Thank you for supporting live theater and I hope to see you again soon.