Date: Fri 11-Apr-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHIRLE

Illustration: C

Location: A10

Quick Words:

TheatreWorks-Burn-This-theatre

Full Text:

(rev "Burn This" @New Milford TheatreWorks, 4/11/97)

Theatre Review

Characters A Little Too Self-Absorbed, But Acting Redeems

(with photo)

By Julie Stern

NEW MILFORD - "Burn this!" is what a person of ambivalent openness scrawls at

the end of a note on which he has revealed his innermost feelings, rather than

stick with the safe and acceptable. The idea provides the title, and the

central concept for Lanford Wilson's play about arty young New Yorkers

endeavoring to figure out what they really want, on New Milford's Theatre

Works stage until April 19.

Burton (J. Scott Williams) is a screenwriter who makes a six-figure income

knocking out scripts for dreadful, but highly profitable, sci-fi movies. His

girlfriend Anna (Daryl Meyer) is an aspiring choreographer who shares a SoHo

loft apartment with two gay men: Robbie, her dance partner and best friend,

and Larry (Edd Fonzo), a self-mocking humorist who works in advertising.

The plot is set in motion by Robbie's death in a boating accident: Anna is

thrown into turmoil both by the loss of Robbie, and by her discovery that his

New Jersey family was oblivious to both his talent as a dancer (they had never

seen him perform) and his sexual orientation.

In an attempt to comfort her, the laid-back and amiable Burton muses on the

meaning of life and avows his desire to write a serious screenplay about real

people who express powerful emotions, a drama of loneliness and passion, about

spaces between humans rather than outer space...

Of course this is a foreshadowing of what is about to happen, when Anna finds

herself unexpectedly drawn to Robbie's boorish older brother Pale (Jonathan

Ross), a restaurant manager from Passaic who is loud, vulgar and reminiscent

of Stanley Kowalski (of Tennessee Williams' Streetcar ).

When Pale lights Anna's fire, Burton must re-examine what he wants and who he

is, and strive for a little more self knowledge, guided by the wise and

insightful Larry.

As Larry, Fonzo gives the best performance here, perhaps because he had the

best lines - lots of sharp, snappy gay jokes - and was the only character

completely out of the emotional closet, with a clear vision of who he was and

what he wanted.

In the case of Burton, it was unclear whether his fuzziness was called for by

the playwright or stemmed from uncertainty on Williams' own part as to what

the role entailed. Daryl Meyer is appealing, as always, and Jonathan Ross

suitably thuggish as the stranger who appeals to her "dark side."

Rich Pettibone's direction was up to his usual standard. I only wish I could

have cared more about these people, but they were just a little too

self-absorbed, and self-righteously devoted to their art . I just wasn't

certain they were as good as they kept reassuring each other they were.