By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
“The Drunken City “ opens with an explosion of bride-to-be bliss.
Three recently engaged young women burst onto the stage with blazing diamonds to display. By the time the play ends we have one happy couple on the set , and a couple of those diamonds have made their exits.
Adam Bock’s “The Drunken City,” directed by Dennis Sloan, opens tonight (Thursday, Oct. 17) at 8 p.m. in the Eva Marie Saint Theatre in Bowling Green State University’s Wolfe Center for the Arts. The show continues weekends through Saturday Oct. 26. See showtime and ticket details below.
When we meet Melissa (Megan Kome), Marnie (Emily Dyer), and Linda (Erica Harmon) they are contemplating a bachelorette excursion into the city. Melissa appoints herself bachelorette-in-chief, making the rules and critiquing a previous trip. Marnie has brought along photos of all the fiancés, their married friend’s kids, and a very awkward photo of another friend, who they suspect will never get married.
Linda talks about how excited she was when she got engaged, so nervous “I got out my bottle of Windex and I cleaned my sneakers.”
She’s even more excited to be headed to the city which she senses is alive, and “whispering dark ideas in your ear. It’s fun!”
When they arrive in the city three weeks later, Melissa is no longer engaged — she broke it off because her boyfriend was cheating on her. But she’s still in charge.
They are all getting ready for Marnie’s big day. They’ve gotten their dresses, and gloves, and have imbibed in maybe a few too many effervescent pink drinks.
That’s the state they’re in when they run into the also buzzed Eddie (Michael Cuschieri) and Frank (Brian Farstvedt) who happen to be from the same suburb as the women.
Frank’s suffering from the lingering effects of getting dumped by his girlfriend and Eddie is serving as matchmaker as they make the rounds.
What no one plans on is that Marnie would take a shine to Frank, and soon they are kissing.
Marnie is having second thoughts about her nuptials. They seem to be driven along, not by what she wants, but by what her fiancé, Gary, wants, and what her parents want, and, yes, what her friends want.
She realizes she didn’t so much want to get married, but to have a wedding. “Gary was just a prop.”
Melissa, as it turns out, had a relationship with Gary before Marnie. Soon Frank and Marnie take off, and the others set off in drunken pursuit.
They even call in Bob (Adam David Hensley), the baker for whom Melissa and Marnie work.
He arrives upset that he wasn’t invited to the party in the first place.
So the characters play hide and seek in the city. They are trying to hide from their own feelings about love, all the while seeking it.
Dyer captures Marnie’s excitement at the forbidden, and her foreboding as she confronts her true feelings. Farstvedt’s Frank is at once eager, yet cautious lest he go to fast.
Kome shows that Melissa’s demanding nature is driven by her own deep disappointments. And Hensley and Cuschieri move warily around each other, comically sizing the other up.
Occasionally, the city — or the dragon that Linda imagines it is — starts to quake, further scattering characters and their thoughts.
Back home, a hungover Linda sings a melancholy tune, with comic diva brio. It’s a wonderful set piece in which Harmon expresses her character’s deceptive ditzy manner and attempts at deep thoughts.
The song also gives the other characters time for a costume change. They arrive back on stage in their everyday clothes. It’s clear, though, that for none of them will their lives ever return to what they were. It’s a measure of the play, and the deep commitment the actors bring to their characters, that we care enough to wonder what the future holds for them.
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“The Drunken City” will be performed in the Eva Marie Saint Theatre at 8 p.m. on Oct. 17-19 and 24-26 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 19, 20 and 26 at 2 p.m. Advance tickets are $15, $5 for students, and $10 for seniors. On the day of performance tickets are $20 and $10 for students available online at bgsu.edu/arts, by calling 419-372-8171, or the BGSU Arts Box Office in the Wolfe Center, Monday through Friday, from noon to 5 p.m.
