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“Reflections & Perspectives,” the Theatrevolt production playing through next weekend in downtown McHenry, is an all-encompassing title for three short plays by suburban playwright Carl Zeitler. In the intimate surroundings of the Hidden Pearl Café, you can’t resist being drawn into each of the slice-of-life one-act plays. All three make you think, laugh or both. Add in the guitar and vocal music of Danny Mitchell, featured before the show and during the transitions between plays, and you get the feeling this Hidden Pearl performance will be, well, a gem.
Are all three shows – none of them lasting more than 15 minutes or so – gems in this setting? Not entirely, but they each have definite appeal. Let me explain.
“Wedded Bliss… Or Not” was my favorite of the three on opening night Saturday. Donny (Tim Vance) is a Bears fan settling in to watch his beloved team on TV on a fall Sunday afternoon. His wife, Lisa (Trace Gamache), has other plans for the next quarter-hour. She wants Donny to join her in answering a five-question magazine survey that should result in a rating for their marriage. Donny knows this is treacherous territory, but faced with the choice of a brief detour from the game to complete the survey or a long “field trip” to Crate & Barrel, he takes the poll, which includes the no-win question “What do you think was most memorable about our first kiss?” Vance and Gamache have fun with this scenario, and you believe their relationship. That helps them get the most laughs of the evening, including Lisa’s response after one particularly creative, but wrong answer: “I don’t know whether to laugh, throw up or submit it for publication.”
A blind date at a restaurant on a Friday night is the setting for the second play, “A Smattering of Perspective,” starring Lynn Sciaraffa (director of all three one-acts) and Jim Pierce as the ill-fated couple who’ve been fixed up and Joshua Szeszol as their inattentive waiter. The framing device used for this play is that Sloan (Sciaraffa’s character) and Pierce (the character played coincidentally by Pierce) are shown individually talking on their smartphones to the friends who set them up, each giving a very different account of the date. We then flash back to some of their date, such as the early part of the evening when he quotes “Star Trek” and she’s hung up on reality TV shows of all kinds. Not as many laughs here, but we all can relate to the awkwardness of a first date, let alone a blind date. Sciaraffa and Pierce’s characters don’t have much chemistry together, but that makes sense: they wouldn’t. At one point, a character says this date “had trainwreck written all over it.” Whether the two can salvage the date kept my interest.
The final play, “And Then What?,” takes place in what appears to be a doctor’s waiting room area, except we soon find out both Charles (Tim Vance) and Christine (Regina Belt-Daniels) are dead. So is this a waystation on the way to heaven or to another location? “The Host” (Steve Morris) isn’t saying. We do know some time has passed since each of them died, since each heard voices at their own funeral service. As Charles and Christine chat, they get to know each other well and their chemistry is apparent. “And then what?” is asked multiple times during the play; it’s also an appropriate question on my mind at the end, because I wanted to know more about these characters, where they truly were, and whether they’d have a chance to continue their new friendship. Note: There was one prop that took me out of this “reality” – an issue of Reminiscing magazine that was supposed to be a Life magazine about Pearl Harbor.
The “Reflections & Perspectives” performances partially are benefitting the Hidden Pearl as it prepares to move out of its current location. So this is a perfect opportunity to show support for theater on a real shoestring. Just take an hour or so out of your weekend and enjoy some humorous, thoughtful entertainment in a unique coffeehouse environment.
• Paul Lockwood is past president of TownSquare Players (TSP) and an occasional community theater actor, appearing in more than 30 plays, musicals and revues since he and his wife moved to Woodstock in 2001. Recent shows include “A Christmas Carol” (2014, 2016), “Into the Woods” and “The Drowsy Chaperone,” all at the Woodstock Opera House, where he’ll be in “9 to 5, The Musical,” opening March 31. He’s also performed in dramatic readings at Le Petit Marché (Get LIT[erary]) and at the Raue Center for the Arts (Williams Street Repertory LAB Series).
“REFLECTIONS AND PERSPECTIVES”
WHEN: 7 p.m. March 25 & 2 p.m. March 26
WHERE: Hidden Pearl Café, 1208 N. Green St., McHenry
COST & INFO: Featuring a collection of plays by Carl Zeitler presented by Theatrevolt. Plays are entitled "A Smattering of Perspective," "Wedded Bliss...or Not" and "And Then What?" Tickets: $15 general admission. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Hidden Pearl Café as it moves to a new location. Information: 815-322-9765, https://allevents.in/mchenry or find Theatrevolt on Facebook.