Review: A DELICATE SHIP - An Intriguing Evening of Clever Uneasiness

A DELICATE SHIP/by Anna Ziegler/directed by Andre Barron/The Road on Magnolia/thru March 11, 2018

The west coast premiere of playwright Anna Ziegler's A DELICATE SHIP receives a sturdy launching by The Road Theatre Company. A DELICATE SHIP centers on a romantic Christmas Eve that Sam and Sarah anxiously plan to spend together alone. Right off the bat, Philip Orazio and Paris Perrault smoothly establish the magnetic chemistry between their characters Sam and Sarah. And then the front doorbell rings and the romance for the evening takes a dramatic u-turn. Nate has arrived to present Sarah with a gift that just couldn't wait. Nate's relationship's not only a suspicious question mark to Sam, but to the audience as well (for a majority of the play).

Josh Zuckerman's frenetic energy imbues this interloper with such intensity, one easily gets caught up in his storytelling of his and Sarah's teen years growing up together (Truths? Disillusions?) Bravo to director Andre Barron and Zuckerman for keeping the character of Nate as charming for as long as Zuckerman does, before inevitably becoming annoying and obsessive. This well-constructed, three-person stand-off makes for an evening of tense uncomfortableness, with the identity of who's the actual third wheel, also a question mark. Seems that only Sarah (since this is her apartment) can/should end/remedy this situation. Perrault possesses a lovely Carey Mulligan-esque quality to her Sarah's vulnerable indecisiveness. Orazio nicely underplays the very conflicted current love of Sarah's life. Orazio also makes the most of musician Sam's opportunities to most pleasantly sing and strum a calming guitar.

The actors periodically and seamlessly break the fourth wall narrating plot points directly to the audience. Barron smartly directs the action as a continuous build until...(no spoiler alert here) a conclusion. As in Ziegler's other recent play ACTUALLY, all her characters possess questionable, very human characteristics, very open to interpretation. (Click here for Ziegler's interview on ACTUALLY.) How you, as an audience, react to the character's ending situations will depend on if you feel the evening's 'festivities' were 'better' handled by either one of the three characters. Ziegler fills her sharp narrative with very clever puns and some indirect/most direct references.

Scenic Designer Sarah B. Brown's open, modern living set, together with Jared A. Sayeg's lighting, and Nick Santiago's projection and video design kept the action alternately claustrophobic and spatial (cityscapes and snow flurries), as needed.

Get onboard this DELICATE SHIP for an evening of intriguing questioning.

www.RoadTheatre.org