Review: ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR at Trinity Rep

It is a wonder that anyone gives a cocktail party at all, given the stress the parties can cause their hosts and guests.  Are business networking and reluctant spouses really anyone’s idea of a good time?  As a voyeur, watching Alan Ayckborn’s Absurd Person Singular at Trinity Rep,  it is.

The three-act comedy, directed by Brian McEleney, follows three British couples over three successive holiday seasons, in the early 1970s. 

Sidney and Jane are a social-climbing couple who are reaching up past their designated socio-economic station; a venial sin in British society. A small-time contractor/developer, Sidney (Stephen Berenson)  and his wife Jane (Angela Brazil)  are hosting a intimate cocktail party. They have invited Ronald (Timothy Crowe), a local banker and his wife Marion (Anne Scurria), a local architect, Geoffrey (FrEd Sullivan, Jr.) and his wife Eva (Phyllis Kay) along with a fourth un-seen couple. These guests have only sniping contempt for their hosts.  

Despite their very best efforts to keep their guests in the parlor, Sidney and Jane cannot keep their guests out of the kitchen.   Ronald, the banker, wanders in as does his wife Marion, who is a vision in Harris Tweed.  Anne Scurria is a stitch as Marion as she less-than-authentically marvels and coos over the appliances, cupboards and cabinets.  Geoffrey, the architect, broadly hints to Ronald that he taking full advantage of the sexual revolution while his wife, Eva, is taking similar advantage of recent progress in the pharmaceutical industry.

Act Two takes a notably darker comedic turn as we catch up with the couples a year later. Eva has succumbed to the demon of depression as her marriage to Geoffrey crumbles. We find them in their kitchen as Geoffrey comes home from work to find Eva in her bedclothes, mute and scribbling in a notebook. Both have forgotten that they are hosting a cocktail party that evening. Eva would rather die (literally) than partake in another cocktail party and is actively searching for a way out. Eva continues her suicidal quest as her guests busy themselves around her.

In Act Three, which takes place in Ronald and Marion’s spacious, well appointed and currently un-heated kitchen, the reversal of fortune is complete.  The banking industry is in decline, as are the couple’s personal finances.  The previously immaculate Marion has lost her stiff upper lip and has taken to her bed, comforting herself with booze.  One of the buildings that Geoffrey has designed has had its roof collapse.  The previously suicidal Eva has found the right combination of meds, helping her live a full life and is she is now the backbone of her husband’s architecture firm.  Most notably, Sidney’s business has been wildly successful and he and Jane are living the high life.  Not everyone is happy for them.

Alan Ayckbourn’s marvelously constructed play is truly an ensemble comedic piece that is perfect for a theater company like Trinity Rep to perform. The comedic elements evolve with the characters and situations. The humor and pacing in Act One, with its silence and sight gags, is markedly dissimilar from the darker humor in the subsequent acts.  Brian McEleney does a flawless job directing this consistently strong and funny cast.
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Absurd Person Singular plays at Trinity Rep’s Dowling Theater through November 21st.  Ticket prices start at $12 and can be purchased at the Box Office which is located at 201 Washington St., Providence, RI; by phone at (401) 351-4242; and online at www.trinityrep.com.

Photo: Anne Scurria, Timothy Crowe, Phyllis Kay, Stephen Berenson and Angela Brazil in Absurd Person Singular.  Photo by Mark Turek, courtesy of Trinity Repertory Company

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