Saturday, September 17, 2011

Theater Review: Completeness

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Scientific, Emotional Components of Relationships Crash in a Nice All-in-One Bundle
By Lauren Yarger
A computer geek and a molecular biologist partner on an algorithm and suddenly romance is in bloom, along with yeast populations in a petri dish in Itamra Moses' new play Completeness in its new York premiere at Playwrights Horizons.

Molly (Aubrey Dollar) talks (in very technical and complex language) about mapping DNA through studying bait and prey and Elliot (Karl Miller) shares his passion for one day solving the mathematically unsolvable "salesman problem," involving probabilities for the routes of a traveling salesman. Their circuits meld, thanks to the playwright's skill at creating likable, real characters and putting them into a situation filled with humor and human emotion.

Neither has a good track record with relationships. Molly's ex and the head of her department at the university, Don (Brian Avers), doesn't understand why she suddenly won't take his calls and when he realizes he's been replaced in her affections by Elliott, he might just pull the funding for her research. Meanwhile, Elliott just got out of a serious relationship with Lauren (Meredith Forlenza) and is sure he probably will have a hard time committing to Molly too.

The two find themselves reverting to past behaviors: she uses bait and prey to mask hurt, then is hurt to find that she can't wipe the slate clean of anything to mask; he fails, then fails to understand why he fails in a tribute to the unsolvable salesman problem. All of that is an allegory for the algorithm they write together. The system overloads as they search for a solution and there is a crash, very nicely staged (David Zinn; scenic and costume design; Russell H. Champa; Rocco DiSanti, projection and video design; Bray Poor, original music and sound).

Pam MacKinnon deftly directs and helps  Forlenza and Avers make stunning transformations into other characters who interact with the couple. Moses shows skill at using dialogue that is distinctive for each character and wraps up a neat all-in-one package of interesting topic, real characters and multi-layered plot.

The limited edition of this New York premiere runs Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, (416 West 42nd St., through Sunday, Sept. 25.  For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily, or purchase online at www.playwrighthorizons.orgs.
Posted by Lauren Yarger at 12:38 PM

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My Bio

Lauren Yarger is Executive Director/Producer with Masterwork Productions, Inc. She has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists.

Yarger trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run.

In 2008 she was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She writes reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway theater with a Christian perspective for Masterwork Productions (http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/) and is Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp http://www.curtainup.com/, a national theater web site based in New York and editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection, an online source for news and reviews (http://ctarts.blogspot.com/).

She also worked in arts management for The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford and for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Yarger writes news and inspiration for Christian artists at http://christianpeformers.blogspot.com/ and teaches theater workshops at conferences around the country.

She is a freelance writer and member of The Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle, The American Theater Critics Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the CT Press Club, the National Book Critics Circle, the Connecticut SPJ, the Connecticut Critics Circle and Christians in Theatre Arts.

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

Copyright

All material is copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

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God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.
Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.
Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.
Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.
Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.
Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.
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Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.
Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.
Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.
Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

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The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

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Our reviewer Lauren Yarger receives free tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle and The Drama Desk, the two professional critics organizations with journalists covering NY theater. Journalistically, she provides an unbiased review and is under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows our readers want to know about (we review all Broadway shows and pertinent Off-Broadway shows), Masterworks purchases a ticket.

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