Congested Development

Brothers-in-Law is as frustrating as the real thing.

by Mark Cofta

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Published: Mar 19, 2008

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I hate to speak ill of relatives — it's easier to just avoid them — so I admit to some initial empathy for Fred and Richard, the titular Brothers-in-Law of Jeff Baron's world-première play at Act II Playhouse, who escape their mother-in-law's funeral by hiding in their late father-in-law's basement sanctuary.

Then I got to know them, and to know these guys — despite likable performances by Tom McCarthy and Kraig Swartz — is to find them tedious.

Baron subjects us to this for 90 minutes: their estrangement, their suspicions ("Are you gay?" Fred blurts to Richard), but most of all, the lengthy past histories that we can easily identify as exposition (good writers hide it). The program's family-tree diagram is hardly necessary, given the detail Baron dishes out; if quizzed later, we'd all pass, assuming we didn't doze off.

What we learn is that Fred and Richard are Oscar-and-Felix opposites: McCarthy plays truck-driving, no-nonsense Fred, and Swartz plays self-consciously highbrow Richard. They'd never meet except for their wives, who are sisters. All sorts of history spews out through lukewarm accusations and confessions going back decades; dramatist no-no "Remember when ... " rhapsodies and the contrived "realistic" business ofbathroom trips and cell phone calls. What's seldom clear — and never made interesting — is what might be at stake for these guys: Maybe the in-laws had money, and maybe these guys need it, but hey, who doesn't?

In other words, why should we care?

Director Harriet Power's production surrounds the characters in painstakingly detailed ordinariness: John Hobbie's basement rec-room set, with its light wood paneling and comfortably old furniture, feels more alive than the characters, despite McCarthy and Swartz's congenial skills. These guys seem real — a theatrical plus — but are, alas, rather ordinary and dull, which is a huge minus. We can feel the playwright bullying and manipulating them into a revelation about their in-laws that offers no relief or release. Baron wrote Brothers-in-Law to create roles for two French actors, he admits in his program note— not, his play confirms, to tell a story.

When Brothers-in-Law stops (rather than ends), the guys are, predictably, closer than before. But, o brothers, where are we?

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Brothers-in-Law through April 6, Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Ave., Ambler, 215-654-0200, act2.org.

 

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