By JON LINDLEY
A Seat on the Aisle
There’s a game you can play where you try to think of the possibly infinite ways you might sort the world.
Here’s one example: there are people who like surprises, and there are people who don’t. I think I belong in the latter camp. If all surprises could be guaranteed to be pleasant ones, I might feel differently. But we all know that’s not how surprises work. The unpleasant kind seem to darken our door far more often than the pleasant kind brighten it.
But thanks to the beautiful cathartic gift that theatre gives us, we’re free to sit back and watch some poor beleaguered characters suffer their unfortunate turn of events, while we breathe freely and thank our lucky stars it’s not us twisting and turning in the wind.
And so it goes with the hapless souls who populate the deceptively ordinary worlds created by playwright Mark Harvey Levine. The latest such soulful gathering by this master of the short play form now struts and frets for a few more hours upon the stage at Fonseca Theatre in a delightful production by Southbank Theatre Company. This collection, aptly titled Didn’t See That Coming: An Evening of Short Plays, is a quick tour through a rogues’ gallery of unpleasant surprises. But, importantly, it’s also a lighthearted object lesson in how we might navigate our own rocky roads to happier endings.
Angela Dill and Paul Hansen in “The Interview.” (Photo courtesy Rob Slaven / Indy Ghost Light)
So, how does one talk about a set of plays built on the element of surprise without spoiling the surprises? The answer probably sounds like the punchline to a Dad Joke: very carefully.
Suffice to say, the titular “Evening” (rebel me, I was there on a Sunday afternoon) is an assembly of just a few of Levine’s roughly 10-minute pieces arranged into two fleeting acts. One piece even bears the title “Surprise,” winking to us with the overall theme. Each piece is a gem of real wit, the kind you wish you had, when faced with the sorts of predicaments these characters encounter. Maybe I’m only speaking for myself here, but if only I could muster the clever sense of humor that some of these characters brandish in their trying situations.
Though the playwright tells us in his program notes “There’s no message” here, I’d like to try to persuade you otherwise, that perhaps Levine has subtly and cleverly tucked a not-too-pushy, pleasantly-offered message into his evening of theatre: that there, but-for-the-grace, go we. And perhaps, with these helpful examples in our minds, we, too, can meet our next inevitable unpleasant surprises with the good humor that his characters manage to find. Eventually. After they sweat a little.
Good writing isn’t enough, though. Quick, witty scenes require a quick, witty ensemble cast. Southbank has assembled some of the city’s quickest and wittiest. Michelle Wafford, having appeared in Levine works in last year’s IndyFringe festival, could make a specialty out of performing some of Levine’s most teetering-on-the-edge-of-sanity characters. Ryan Powell carries us along on the thrill ride that is a piece called “Plato’s Cave” – a happy-accidental theatrical doppelganger-in-miniature to the cinematic hit Everything Everywhere All at Once. Angela Dill, Paul Hansen, Terra McFarland, and Alex Oberheide each take turns at squirming exquisitely through their characters’ difficult straits.
Michelle Wafford and Alex Oberheide in “The Folks.” (Photo courtesy Rob Slaven / Indy Ghost Light)
Direction by Anthony Nathan is smart and appropriately unobtrusive, allowing the wit and charm of the pieces to bubble along, seemingly of their own volition rather than his. Design and additional supporting elements from the rest of the production team are equally adept at driving the production forward, while keeping it light on its feet.
The drawback to Dad Jokes is that you can easily see the punchlines coming, a mile away. The beauty of DSTC is that it’s nothing like Dad Jokes. The humor is fresh, and the delivery is sharp. These plays end in ways you won’t see coming. So, while Didn’t See That Coming is here, you should try to see it before it’s gone.
Didn’t See That Coming continues through May 14 at Fonseca Theatre, 2508 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis. For ticket information, go to SouthbankTheatre.org/dstc-tickets.
Read more great play reviews from A Seat on the Aisle at asota.wordpress.com.