BWW Reviews: A DELICATE BALANCE - The Wealthy and the Helpless

Affluent Americans slinging veiled insults and witty retorts is a favorite spectator sport for theatregoers. Family dysfunction transformed into verbal repartee exchanged in a cloud of cigarette smoke and alcohol was especially in vogue in those swinging, drinking eras of the early to mid- twentieth century. First performed in 1966, A DELICATE BALANCE, by Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), is a densely worded drawing room dramedy. It's a well-ordered setting for the messy lives living in it.

It's a Friday evening, and Agnes (Cybele Pomeroy) and Tobias (Steve Avelleyra) are having their usual after-dinner drinks. They're nicely coiffed and suited up in lounge style. Agnes is talking about how she might go mad one day and is glibly cheerful about it. Agnes talks a lot. And her talks diverge like a tree that branches out endlessly and then returns to the middle though you can't quite figure out how she makes it back. Pomeroy is charmingly insouciant and manages the ultra-long passages of dialogue without requiring extra oxygen. Avelleyra has the right touch of wit and irony as Tobias, who keeps letting people in despite his better judgement

To stir things up, Agnes' boozy, brash sister Claire (Melanie Eifert) lives with them. The others keep insisting she's alcoholic while drinking their own way through the liquor cabinet.Claire likes nothing better than to embarrass Agnes and cause trouble, and Eifert plays the role with the gusto it requires. Things really start to boil over when Agnes and Tobias' daughter, Julia (Joy Baldwin Astle) decides to run away from her fourth marriage by coming home to Mom and Dad. Julia is a brat, and Astle lets you know it.

The absurd enters in when old friends Harry (Dan Collins) and Edna (Margaret Condon) decide to shack up with Agnes and Tobias when some undefined fear drives them away from their own home. My theater guest, who is known to be fearless about stating her opinions, liked how Collins and Condon brought this essential element to the story, portraying the free-floating anxieties of the modern upper-middle class. They are aimless and tremulous and move everyone else out of their comfort zones.

The Spotlighters' intimate space fits the mood and style of the story. The corner bar is almost a seventh character. Director Fuzz Roark clearly knows his material and understands the mood of desperate charm it evokes. It is a verbally challenging piece and does require the audience to listen with both ears wide open. By the time the inevitable eruptions occur, you may find the life of the current century still has things to learn from the old one.

Note: The reviewer is engaged to one of actors, Dan Collins.

A Delicate Balances runs through June 30th at the Spotlighters' Theatre at 817 St. Paul St. For ticket prices and more information go online to www.spotlighters.org or call the box office at 410 (752-1225)