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In her essay “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction,” the novelist Ursula Ok. Le Guin hymned the bag as the correct form for tales: it “is stuffed with beginnings with out ends, of initiations, of losses, of transformations and translations, and way more tips than conflicts.”
One of the characters in Lia Romeo’s “Still,” a author, carries simply such a bag — a attainable wink to her fellow novelist. The tote is giant sufficient to deal with a ukulele, an avocado and a package deal of macadamia nuts — all of that are divulged within the play’s single second of spontaneity — however its proprietor can’t appear to impact any Le Guinian “transformations” or “tips.” There is a way of stasis to the aptly named two-hander, which by no means ripens from a state of affairs right into a story.
“Still,” a Colt Coeur manufacturing that opened just lately at DR2 Theater within the East Village, begins with two characters, former flames, assembly in a bar. Mark (a suave Tim Daly) and Helen (Jayne Atkinson) are of their mid-60s and haven’t seen one another in years. Sharing a bottle of wine, they shoot the breeze about their kids and up to date divorce (him) and new e book and most cancers prognosis (her).
At first, they’re content material to fake their previous romance has subsided right into a platonic relationship, however because the alcohol goes to their heads, they admit to carrying a torch for one another. A spotlight of the present is their seduction scene: It’s the primary I’ve seen onstage that unabashedly invokes the corporeal indignities of getting older. The director Adrienne Campbell-Holt has Mark and Helen stroll slowly towards one another whereas making sotto voce confessions: “I’m lacking the nail on my proper massive toe,” “I’ve three pretend tooth,” “I’ve arthritis in my knees.” Do I have to spell out what occurs subsequent?
Alexander Woodward’s softly lit set spins to disclose a resort room. Resting in opposition to one another in mattress, Mark and Helen proceed, post-coitally this time, with their confessions. Mark, who lives in Colorado, is contemplating relocating to Washington, D.C., to run for Congress, as a “reasonable” Republican. “I want you’d advised me that earlier than we ——” Helen says, gesturing limply to the mattress with rumpled sheets. She considers herself a liberal, however political variations aren’t the one factor on her thoughts.
Part of the rationale their relationship ended was as a result of she had an abortion. Despite what Mark advised her many years in the past, he needed Helen to have the newborn. She, then again, had felt — and nonetheless feels — that it could have been a mistake. “When we walked out of that clinic, I used to be — scraped out, and I used to be unhappy. But I felt so mild, understanding that … all my cells have been my very own once more,” she tells him. The stage is thus set for an actual battle.
Romeo is just too sensible to show her characters into slogans for and in opposition to abortion rights, however neither does she do something greater than scatter the seeds of a setup. Precisely after we need her to flooring the accelerator, she brakes, steps out of her car and abandons her characters. Will Helen publish a memoir about her abortion? Will the e book torpedo Mark’s possibilities of being elected to Congress?
We’ll by no means know. The play doesn’t finish a lot as peter off, like the amount dying down in a pair of headphones. That’s too unhealthy as a result of the premise of “Still” is juicy sufficient for certainly one of Helen’s novels. She could sooner or later flip it right into a sequel to her present greatest vendor, however as she is aware of higher than anybody, these can take a vexingly very long time to jot down.
Still
Through May 18 on the DR2 Theater, Manhattan; coltcoeur.org. Running time: 1 hour quarter-hour.
