Review: APPLE HUNTERS! at Artists Rep

APPLE HUNTERS! is listed as the "feel-good" show in Artist Repertory Theatre's season, presumably because "will lighten your heart and restore your faith in humanity" would have been too long. But that's really what E.M. Lewis's gorgeous new play does.

The story follows three men: Eddie (Phillip Ray Guevara), Don (Henry Noble), and Stan (Fiely Matias), childhood best friends who called themselves the Three Musketeers. They played Star Wars in the woods together, and did all those things that boys do. But now, decades later, life has intervened and they see each other less and less. Occasional beers while watching sports.

Eddie has had a brutal year. His mother died, his wife left him, and his brother Paul (Andrés Alcalá) is also grieving and unraveling. Eddie's mother urged him to look after Paul. But who's going to look after Eddie?

The answer turns out to involve apples. Overhearing a barbershop conversation about the disappearance of apple varieties, replaced to universal disappointment by the Red Delicious (which everyone agrees is not delicious), Eddie becomes consumed with finding the lost Golden Hawk apple. He enlists his friends in the quest. (It is emphatically not a hunt, as they keep insisting.)

What follows is a play about friendship, about rediscovering joy that adulthood quietly steals, and about the many ways to support the people you love when they need it. The fact that it centers four men makes it all the more poignant. These are not characters who find any of this easy. They aren’t used to talking about feelings. But they love each other, so they figure it out. It’s very funny and very moving.

The performances are wonderful across the board. Guevara anchors the piece as a man whose world has shattered and who has somehow decided that finding the Golden Hawk will make everything right again. Noble's Don begins the play with a conception of adult male friendship that doesn’t extend beyond sports and beer, but he finds comfort in both giving and receiving care. Matias's Stan is the most childlike of the three, always ready with a laugh, but also full of unexpected wisdom. And Alcalá, as Paul, will break your heart. Repeatedly.

Zeina Salame’s direction, along with abby jacquin's lighting design, enhances everything beautiful about the script. This production is staged simply, but for maximum impact.

I highly recommend APPLE HUNTERS! If you've had a heavy heart lately (and who hasn't), it will help. The show runs through April 26. Details and tickets here.

Photo credit: Phillip J. Hatton