Review: THE ROOMMATE at The Contemporary Theatre Of Ohio

Close your eyes and think of a movie, TV show, or play about mismatched friends.

Chances are good you came up with at least one.

Some are funny (Planes, Trains and Automobiles), some uneven (Two and a Half Men), and some just plain stale (remember the Odd Couple remake with Matthew Perry?)

Let’s face it. Plays, TV shows, and movies about mismatched people forced to live together are a dime a dozen.

That is, unless you are planning to see The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio’s production of THE ROOMMATE this weekend. Then you can take any expectations of a hackneyed script and a stale formula, and deposit it into the trash can outside the Riffe Center’s Studio B (77 S. High Street in downtown Columbus).

Playwright Jen Silverman’s script, expertly crafted by Jeanine Thompson and Michelle Schroeder-Lowrey, takes a pedestrian premise to places no one expected it to go.

Director Eleni Papaleonardos and Scenic Designer Dan Gray create an idyllic dream world for Sharon to live in. Gray turns the Studio B stage into a quiet Iowan version of a Barbie townhouse, complete with ceramic udder buddies and other country sundries that reflect Sharon’s comfortable style.

Sharon (in a witty turn by Thompson), a 65-year-old woman has been recently “retired” from her marriage and places an ad for a roommate for her quaint house in Iowa City. Enter Robyn (Schroeder-Lowrey), a brooding, secretive lodger from the Bronx who answers Sharon’s ad.

As Robyn unpacks her stuff, Sharon is as inquisitive as the New York transplant is cagey. She dodges the simplest questions about what she does for a living, why she chose to move to Iowa City, and if she has any family?

When she learns Robyn was involved in with a telemarketing scheme at one point in her life, Sharon asks incredulously, “Are you one of the Nigerians?” Silverman is making a coy reference to an email con where a prince of Nigeria needed your help … and your social security number … to save his family fortune.

Sharon is taken aback by Robyn’s past un-Iowan activities, such as running shady deals, growing marijuana, and, gasp, using oat milk in her coffee.

And yet, as Robyn unfolds the pieces of her dark and complicated life, Sharon not only becomes a sympathetic ear but a willing participant in her roommate’s cons and swindles.

Robyn tells Sharon at one point, "there’s a great liberty in being bad.” Sharon must decide if she want to truly embrace that kind of freedom or continue just existing in her naïve, average life.

Under Papaleonardos’ sharp direction, The Roommate feels both deeply human and slyly subversive—a rare mix of heart and bite.

At the beginning of the play, Robyn explains to Sharon her reasons for moving to Iowa City: “I guess everybody wants to start over. Just burn it all down and start over.”

In a way, Silverman hasn’t just given Sharon and Robyn a chance to start over—she’s done the same thing for the tired old ‘odd couple’ story.

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