Review: THE MARRIAGE ZONE at SkyPilot Theatre at 905 Cole

Submitted for your approval: a winning, guileless play about love and marriage.

Jeff Gould’s THE MARRIAGE ZONE, a romantic dramady laced with dose of retro sci-fi, is not particularly deep or penetrating, but that doesn’t make this second LA staging at 905 Cole any less fun. Playwright Gould, who also directs, has made his bones writing about marriage and sex, and MARRIAGE ZONE doesn’t figure to be his last chomp at those particularly fruitful apples. Nor should it, if appealing players like those rounded up by the SkyPilot Theatre Company continue to be found.

We’re dealing with a couple in their late 40s whose decision to sell their home feels like a harbinger of something more drastic than just their incessant bickering. They look like they’re headed for divorce court, or maybe even violence. Through a kink of fate, Beth and Cal meet a pair of couples – one younger and very much in love; the second older and bitter – whose perspective, knowledge and insight into the affairs of the heart might just give Cal and Beth a second chance at saving their marriage. Go ahead and cue that familiar theme music. Things are about to get eerie. 

The conceit here is that, where matters of the heart are concerned, the less you know about what lies ahead, the better off you probably are. Frisky twenty-somethings Skip (played by Ben Scattone) and Ellie (Cassidy LeClair) are so into each other that they can barely keep their clothes on even when visiting an open house. Trouble is, both Beth (Kelly DeSarla) and Cal (Anthony Backman) and the even more embittered “pair” of Mike (Corbin Timbrook) and Liz (Tudi Roche) have information about what happens down the line that could potentially disintegrate Skip and Ellie’s rose-colored glasses off their sweet little faces. But anything the young lovers do or don’t do might have reverberations on other people. So nobody is permitted to leave until all this gets sorted out.

Interrupting the action periodically is Beth and Cal’s teen-age daughter Riley (Amberlee Clark) who pops in and out to gripe about being hungry. Until, that is, she stops coming in and very much appears to have vanished as though she never existed. Which intensifies the need for these six people to chart a collective course toward… well… if not marital bliss, maybe at least wedded better-than-this. (Speaking of the future, Gould has some insight into what lies ahead technology-wise, and a certain segment of the population will be delighted at the even greater ease we will have in accessing pornography.)

Presumably in a nod to the ‘60s era TV program it’s evoking, the entire color scheme of THE MARRIAGE ZONE is black, white and gray – from the costumes and props (provided by the ensemble) all the way down to every inch of Anthony Backman’s scenery (love those photos of bridges!).

Is THE MARRIAGE ZONE taking us to any especially uncharted regions or the heart, mind or libido? Not particularly, but it’s an engaging enough 75-minute journey. Gould’s cast of SkyPilot company members seem largely in tune with the rhythm of this comic-sci-fi symphony and how best to play it. The play is double cast with the above-mentioned actors switching off with Dylan Bowers, Laura Walker, Ian Nemser, Sean Babcock, Shelly Snellman, Morry Schorr and Jacee Jule.

THE MARRIAGE ZONE plays through August 31 at 905 Cole Ave., Los Angeles.

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Best Musical - Top 3

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