OUT OF GAS ON LOVERS LEAP
Griffin Theatre Company
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The two are best friends, but each wants more. Grouper wants to be Myst’s boyfriend and live with her. Myst wants to get laid. In the process of sorting out their priorities, secrets get revealed and heavy bonding occurs. They role-play with each other, each acting as the other’s parent. They point out each other’s strengths and flaws and share their hopes and dreams. Then they kill themselves.
And I have a big problem with that. The Griffin Theatre Company obviously figured that some of us might, as they stuffed their press packet with a newspaper article and a psychological study about teen suicides. The trouble is that Myst and Grouper don’t quite fit the description. The biggest difference is that they have each other. Their relationship does not collapse (one of the signs of an oncoming crisis). In the course of the play, it goes through some major shocks, but these shocks bring them closer, rather than isolating them from each other. There are hints of underlying depression, but most of the evening is spent in joy and warmth.
Actually, the first act is controlled by one strong guiding question–will they have sex? At intermission, question answered, I honestly assumed the play was over.
Lynne Magnavite is an eye-opener as a stripper-juggler who shows up at the party in the same play, and Maureen Michael is amusing as another guest. Michael is also good as the cynical, Wagnerian, helmet-clad and spear-carrying waitress in Apres Opera, an extremely silly story written by Michael Dixon and Valerie Smith about strange rendezvous between a man and woman, who are ex-lovers, and the woman’s narcoleptic fiance.
