What I liked most about After-Play, a surprisingly adept first playwriting endeavor by well-known comedienne Anne Meara, is the quality of her characters. They are at once recognizable and all too human. They are not at all evil, yet none of them will win a popularity contest. Most impressive is the way Meara has constructed them as multi-layer stereotypes requiring at least full paragraphs to describe. So at least we can say three cheers for realism that doesn’t quit.
In After-Play, two middle-aged couples who are old friends haven’t seen each other for three years. After attending the theater together, they settle in over cocktails and dinner at a trendy Manhattan restaurant. After-Playdepicts their evening’s reacquaintance, which takes a number of turns, some more intriguing than others.
On a rather jazzy set by Jesse GrothOlson, David Colwell directs a superb cast in which Jerome Loeb and Carmen Guo portray Marty and Terry Guteman, and Phil and Renee Shredman are played by Jack Gilroy and Judy Jones. The four are joined briefly by a third couple, Emily and Mathew Paine (Della Lisi and Kevin Michael Moran), who have recently lost their son.
Although the character of Raziel the waiter, played with a competent and saintly quality by Mario Martinez, is hardly extraneous, Raziel’s curious magical charm that switches the snow outside on and off does seem as though it belongs in another play.
The interaction between the Gutemans and Shredmans has the air of contemptible familiarity, and the absence of pleasantries, that can only exist between long-time chums. They argue and disagree, sympathize over moments of emotional distress, reminisce, laugh a little, psychoanalyze each other, and apologize for rudeness only to be rude again.
I bristled at the way they barked orders at Raziel the waiter, with nary a please nor thank you spoken until he’d done them a special favor late in the play. Then again, the setting is New York.
Although the characters are too complex to adequately describe here, there are certain attributes that somewhat distinguish them. Renee is opinionated and direct. Joke-telling Phil enjoys being the center of attention. Terry is the consummate sufferer, while husband Marty, though socially willing and amiable enough, seems to distance himself from most of the others’ mishegas.
Emily Paine is a woman so consumed with pain over the loss of her child that no thought of behavioral decency nor regard for others is currently possible for her. Poor husband Mathew does what he can to soften the impact on others.
In truth, Renee, Phil, Terry and Marty are all inappropriate at times and know it, as evidenced by their sincere apologies to Raziel as they finally depart.
The injection of the Paines into the foursome’s interaction is an interesting device. It offers us a view of the Gutemans and Shredmans briefly reigning in their “public personae,” becoming temporarily more acceptable, if you will, in order to deal with a couple who the Gutemans barely know, and who the Shredmans have just met.
As the audience, we are little more than voyeurs who find the conversation at the next table more compelling than our own.
The thing is, a meaningful evening of theater should give one pause, make them think or present a fresh point of view. For me, After-Play served as little more than a reminder of the things I don’t want to be when I get older.
But perhaps I’m being unfair. Maybe the characters in After-Play represent who we will all become someday, when we are old enough to feel we’ve paid our dues and can rightfully expect to be accepted on our own terms, even in public. Maybe I just can’t face it.
Hmm, it looks like After-Play may have given me more to think about than I’d realized. Something to ponder, anyway, after the play.
After-Play continues at the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre through January 19. General admission tickets are $22; $20 for seniors. Student tickets are $12 with valid student ID and are available for Friday and Saturday performances. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees on December 9, January 6 and 13 at 2 p.m. Call (562) 494-1014 for reservations and information. Tickets are also available online at www.lbph.com.
