Review: A.C.T. Presents Will Eno's THE REALISTIC JONESES Now Thru April 3

Celebrated playwright Will Eno's latest production, The Realistic Joneses comes to A.C.T.'s Geary Theater fresh from a hit run on Broadway and will be there now through April 3. The show is about two neighborhood couples in small town USA who are doing their best to be normal as they grapple with a degenerative neurological disease that both husbands share. Bob and Jennifer are the older couple who luckily live in the town where specialist Dr. Leavey practices. The younger couple, John and his wife Pony, have moved there so that John can see Dr. Leavey as well, but he keeps Pony in the dark about his condition. Like stones skipping across a pond, each scene takes us further away from the shore of reality, until we sink into the murky depths of the somewhat real...the real-istic. The play will grab you, perhaps not at an emotional level, but certainly at a deep one.

Described as a comedy The Realistic Joneses feels more like a sad drama interspersed with odd comedic moments that sometimes sparkle as truth-telling gems and often times do not. The actors, three of whom were trained at A.C.T., were what dazzled most about this play. Rod Gnapp is spot on as the irascible Bob. He's hard on his kind and intelligent wife Jennifer (the wonderful Rebecca Watson) but love -- and their many years together -- means they're in it for the long haul. John (James Wagner) and scatter-brained Pony (Allison Jean White) seem to have accidentally stumbled into love and marriage. At one point they talk about how each has thought about abandoning the other. Still they are married, yet it is his neighbor Jennifer that John ends up sharing his secret with.

There is no music to give hints as to the tone and timbre of the show. And lighting (Robert Wierzel) is fixed (except in one funny scene) so there's no hint there either. Instead, the audience is left to listen into the negative space that floats around and between the dialogue of the four Joneses in order to try and find meaning and relevancy. Eno does not do the work for you. But should a play be this hard to understand? I'm not sure. You may find yourself going down the existential rabbit hole with The Realistic Joneses but for some it may be an adventure quite worth taking.

THE REALISTIC JONESES
Now through April 3
Written by Will Eno
Directed by Loretta Greco
A.C.T Geary Theater
http://www.act-sf.org/
Photo courtesy of Kevin Berne