rogerandtom

Wedged between the two clumps of audience is a small yet chicly modern New York City apartment, dominated by neatly labeled moving boxes. The walls are invisible, with corners demarcated by taut wires stretching from floor to ceiling. This is the home of Rich (Richard Thieriot) and Penny (Suzy Jane Hunt). Soon it will only be Penny’s. They are going through a divorce and Rich is moving out. Penny is barely holding it together, passive-aggressively bickering with Rich about movers and the arrival of her two brothers, Roger and Tom, who haven’t spoken to each other in five years. These are the emotionally fragile yuppies of any given new play about New Yorkers produced at a reputable not-for-profit theater in the past decade.

Yet when an audience member’s cell phone rudely goes off and he attempts to shuffle out of the theater, things get distinctly stranger. The disruptive audience member is Roger (Eric T. Miller), Penny’s aforementioned brother. His arrival is supposed to be a surprise, but honestly, you can see him coming from a mile away: He’s the only person who is able to cross through the set before the show (rather than around it in the properly defined audience lane) without being accosted by an usher.

Rich (who is portrayed by an actor named William [who is actually portrayed by an actor named Richard…see how much fun we’re having?!?!]) tries to convince Roger not to leave, telling him that his brother Tom wrote this play for him. Much like a character in Pleasantville, Penny is completely oblivious to this, believing this artifice to be her real life. Roger attempts to disavow her of this notion, walking through her apartment “walls” (which really freaks her out) and pointing out how the moving boxes are just filled with Styrofoam, rather than Rich’s belongings. Rich/William counters that he still loves Penny and is not leaving, hence the Styrofoam. This sets off a theatrical chess game between the two men, with Penny the unsuspecting pawn. Yet in the theater, the playwright is God, and it seems there is nothing Roger can do or say that was not already predestined by the script.

Therein lies the problem with self-referential theater in general. Plays about actors and playwrights and directors run the risk of becoming so self-involved that they can only talk to other theater artists, rather than a wider audience. rogerandtom can be quite fun in its trippiness, especially for those who spend a great deal of time around the stage. Yet as I left the theater I couldn’t help thinking, “So what?”