May 26-June 1, 2005

theater

Fantastic Four

by David Anthony Fox

When Joe tells June, "I'm going to give you the most American Fourth of July you ever had," be prepared for fireworks, but not the expected kind.

Christopher Shinn's Four follows, in short vignettes, the experiences of two couples on a single night — indeed, July 4, 1996 — in Hartford, Conn. Neither pair is quite what you might expect. Joe is an African-American professor of literature who has told his family he's off to a conference in Boston, but instead has picked up a 16-year-old boy with the unlikely name of June, with whom he's had an online and telephone flirtation. In another part of town, in another telephone flirtation, a young girl named Abigayle, left alone with her sick mother, is talking, with some trepidation, to Dexter, a high school boy clearly besotted with her.

It will turn out that there are connections among the four characters, as well as some dark surprises (I won't say more), but the considerable power of Shinn's script lies in the punchy scenes between Joe and June, Dexter and Abigayle and the world they live in.

For this is indeed America — and not the stars-and-stripes kind. Four is set in a landscape of urban blight (June waits for Joe in a desolate spot on which not long ago stood the Marshall's where June used to shop), anonymity and disconnectedness (Joe preaches that America's primary themes include endless driving and breaking the law).

Shinn's characters, their situations and especially their words feel real. Nothing is simple or hackneyed here. Whether it's Joe's interest in June (a peculiar combination of lust, envy and fatherly/professorial guidance), or Abigayle's ambivalence about Dexter (with whom she toys even as she knows things are going nowhere), there is a richness and complexity to the script. If in the end Four doesn't offer resolution well, that's right, too. How often does reality offer it?

Kevin Glaccum's production has precisely the right combination of starkness and forward propulsion. From the gray and black scenery (effortlessly merging inside and out) to the wonderful music (Stevie Wonder's "Visions"), he's made all the right choices. The three young people in the cast (Christian Davidock as June, Chancellor Dean as Dexter and Danielle Mebane as Abigayle) are excellent, even heartbreaking. As Joe, Frank X is his usually galvanizing self — but at times he seems to overpower the fragile material. In his quieter moments, though, he's superb.

FOUR Through June 5, Azuka Theatre Collective at St. Stephen's Theater, 10th and Ludlow sts., 215-733-0255, ext. 1