Review: PERFECT ARRANGEMENT AT THE PLAYERS at The Players

Perfection is always precarious; one little shake can bring down the whole house of cards. Playwright Topher Payne takes full advantage of that tension in Perfect Arrangement, his intricately crafted living-room dramedy of false public lives during the repressive 1950s. And The Players, with an excellent cast and tight direction, bring the message home to a new generation who might sometimes feel a similar tension in today's world.

This show kicks off the 118th season for The Players, America's oldest little theatre, in the former St. Stephen's Church on Benefit Street. And their cozy, finely detailed living room set is the perfect backdrop for this pointed history lesson. The first act lures us in with what starts out like a black-and-white sitcom.

It's 1950, and the Red Scare is acquiring a lavender tint. Neighbors Bob Martindale (Scott Kubie, whose stolid, pragmatic surface lets us see the thoughts racing beneath) and Norma Baxter (Lauren Kieler's smooth competence shows us she has more heart and brains than the Fifties can handle) are State Department employees newly charged with rooting out "deviants" in the ranks — an assignment handed down by Bob's genial superior, Theodore Sunderson (Jeff Anderson, who nails the blustery bureaucratese of the era), whose wife Kitty (Erin Malcolm, who steals every scene she's in with her daffy energy) drops in with an inconvenient sense of curiosity. 

The complication — the perfect arrangement of the title — is literal: Bob and his wife Millie (Eva Murray, who gives us flashes of the depth beneath a charming surface) live next to Norma and her husband Jim (Chad Chenail, spot on as a world-weary teacher), with the two households joined by a clothes closet, and the "marriages" just illusions of convenience to protect their true identities as gay and lesbian couples. 

But when the State Department purge list turns up Barbara Grant (Lydia Johnson, icy and precise), a worldly translator with a history of her own, the Act One sitcom facade of slamming doors, hastily switched-on record players, and improvised alibis starts revealing the ugly machinery underneath.

The director, Tyler John, never takes their foot off the gas. The pacing is tight, and the early banter — especially critical for setting us up for the shift in tone — is crisply delivered, with superb comic timing. John's staging gets exceptional work out of the whole ensemble, but it's worth watching specifically the looks that are exchanged behind guests' backs. It's wonderfully understated but clues us in early that not all is as it seems. And John does not descend to pathos, despite the challenging turns of the second act. 

The set, with its prominent closet door, is almost another member of the cast. Ian Hudgins's design is meticulously realized (check the miter on that crown molding) and populated with some fine mid-mod furniture. Liv Hill's costumes nail the period, and the lighting by Sierra Riley is solid and unobtrusive. Bethany Whitehead is credited as intimacy coordinator, and the few beats where the couples allow themselves moments of authenticity are sensitively handled.

Payne's script arrives with credentials. In 2014 the American Theatre Critics and Journalists Association gave Perfect Arrangement its M. Elizabeth Osborn Award, which honors a playwright who has not yet received a major prize or a New York production — a distinction the play promptly outgrew, opening Off-Broadway at Primary Stages the following year and turning up as a 2017 Lambda Literary Award finalist. 

It is no mystery why this play speaks so well to the current times. Payne builds a flawless mid-century domestic comedy, so familiar and nostalgic that when the house of cards begins to tremble, we are brought up short by the all-too-familiar machinery of prejudice and scapegoating. This is a crisply acted production, with moments of hilarity and tragedy that will keep audiences both engaged and discomfited. Recommended.

Perfect Arrangement, directed by Tyler John, at The Players, 400 Benefit St., Providence. Through October 4, Fridays and Saturdays 7:30, Sundays 2:00. Tickets $30, available at https://www.playersri.org or (401) 273-0590.

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