The secret to any two-handed play is to set compelling characters in a precarious predicament and watch them figure their way out. Once we start to care about the characters, we stop worrying about the situation and find ourselves rooting for them to succeed.
In Scripps Ranch Theater’s energetic production of Mark St. Germain’s “Dancing Lessons,” we meet two such characters. Hard-working Broadway dancer, Senga Quinn (Michelle Marie Trester), while side-lined by a serious knee injury, is approached by a neighbor in her building, Ever Montgomery (Andrew Gumm), to provide him a dancing lesson to help him appear presentable during an award ceremony in his honor. That premise is innocent and delightful enough; but as we get to know these characters, we can’t help but find them ever more captivating. Ever has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism that makes social interactions difficult. Senga is equally crippled, but in the physical sense, forcing her to build up social barriers of her own, and re-evaluate her self-worth. One character is forced to lie to protect herself, while the other has no choice but to tell the truth, as that is how he views the world. Their need for each other becomes apparent as their mutual attraction grows and they discover how complementary they are to finding their own true selves.
Trester plays Senga Quinn with a discreet confidence, yet still conveying the heavy, emotional frustration that she struggles with daily. Her capricious nature is at the same time vexing and alluring, not to mention, she has to do that all while strapped to a bothersome knee brace for most of the show. Gumm introduces us to Ever Montgomery’s likeability almost immediately, couched within a very authentic veneer of social instability. We get a real sense of his deference to the disease through his acting choices, and though he has many lines played for laughs, he does not play the character in irony, but sincerity. His honesty and vulnerability keep us engaged a little bit more than his puppy-dog eyes.
The play’s director, Meg DeBoard, deftly weaves this complex story together with aplomb and variety. A two-person play can get very stagnant and repetitive, but DeBoard makes several efforts to keep the movement flowing and serendipitous. Meaningfully, the characters’ own personalities address the way they move as well.
The set, almost entirely of the small apartment where Senga lives, was pretty basic and could have used a bit more flair to help give us a better representation of who her character was. The use of video screens was also a clever touch, though some of the content could have been a little more sharp and compelling. The playwright does tend to get a little off-topic and priggish towards the middle of the play, but that is almost unavoidable when writing a play with dialogue for only two people. Nevertheless, these tiny issues did not take away from this beautifully written play and this precisely performed production.
In the end, the play is really about how fear tends to cripple us (pun intended), until we make the choice to confront it, starting with one small step, and then adding a little hip sway, and then maybe a kick ball change…when you’re ready.
The play runs 80 minutes with no intermission, which is just the right amount of time to tell this story and visit with these characters. It runs through Feb 24th at Scripps Ranch Theater (Lenbough Legler Theatre on Alliant University campus, 9783 Avenue of Nations, Scripps Ranch), 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. **Starting from March 1-17th, this same production will be moving to Oceanside Theatre Company (OTC’s Sunshine Brooks Theater – 217 N Coast Hwy, Oceanside, CA).
Photo credits: Ken Jacques
San Diego Theatre Reviews 