519 Reviews as of : 03/06/2010

When a play has direct address through two thirds of its running time, my suspicions about the playwright's abilities are raised especially concerning the ability to write scenes. I prefer plays that show me a story instead of declaring one. Such was the case with Courtney Baron's A Very Common Procedure where I had my suspicions confirmed when the most protracted scene coming toward the end of the play arrives as pure soap opera. Director Michael Greif seems to be aware of this issue as well since he has his three actors spilling out the events at break-neck speed, but ultimately in the urgency to tell us their story the characters forget why they are telling it.

The story concerns the premature birth of a couple's baby and the human error on the doctor's part causing the infant's death. It was the first time this doctor, Anil Patel (Amir Arison) was performing this procedure and his error stopped the baby's heart. The subsequent emotional separation of the couple, Carolyn (Lynn Collins) and Michael (Stephen Kunken) is textbook anger. The twist in Ms. Baron's account, however, presents the emotional and sexual connection between Carolyn and Anil. The psychological ramifications around this event are certain to run amok and questions run riot through the brain. The point for Ms. Baron, as she makes the audience demonstrate to itself through Dr. Patel, is that the heart is no bigger than one's fist and therefore a fragile, if complex, organ - breakable in so many ways. But other than this old saw, what we are to make of the trio's conundrum is anybody's guess. There are so many possibilities but nothing concrete surfaces on stage.

The three actors are more than fine given the circumstances, although Ms. Collins is a little too actressy breathy, Mr. Kunken a little too casual, and Mr. Arison a little too audience interactive. Robin Vest's ironically anti-sceptic set seems appropriate while Miranda Hoffman's costumes seem the opposite - uncleanly inappropriate. Ms. Baron finds enough humor in this tragedy, particularly with imagery and metaphors that one would find in a short story, to give her characters a warm likability. How much more devastating the play might have been had she found a way to incorporate this talent in order to allow the actors to interact.

...end