Playwright: Michael Weller. At: Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway. Tickets: 773-549-1815;
www.profilestheatre.org; $35-$40. Runs through: June 26
Jan and Adam have a night alone. Their 9-year-old son finally is away on his first sleep-over, accompanied by his pet hamster that the troubled kid imitates by piling up clothing in a closet as a nest. For Jan and Adam it's a night of Chinese food, champagne and monkey sexor so Adam hopesbut his hopes quickly are dashed by Jan, whom Adam, in short order, calls "a withholding, anxious, critical bitch."
Yeah, they have issues which have led to Jan's withdrawal of physical affection despite evidence that they still love each other with passion edging towards ferocity. On this particular night, Jan harbors suspicions that Adam has been unfaithful on his frequent business trips. However, the real issue here would seem to be a profound and fundamental difference in personalities, perhaps relating more than a little to self-image and notions of self-worth. Broadly speaking, Jan is buttoned up and Adam is laissez-faire.
Michael Weller's taut little playhe never explains the meaning of the title, but suggests that audiences will knowhas an abundance of brilliantly written, flowing language; not poetic stuff but everyday speech taken to richly rhythmic and, sometimes, witty heights. It's delivered with gusto and utter authenticity by Katherine Keberlein and Darrell W. Cox, who are thoroughly engaging and horrifyingly believable as Jan and Adam, as telling in their quiet moments as in their explosive ones. These are in-your-face performances (and, I should add, sexually graphic) in a very intimate storefront space.
Weller writes as knowingly about relationships and the male/female dichotomy as any playwright I know, although his sympathies tend towards Adam (or, at least, as I perceived things). I've witnessed first-hand, and been in, relationships in which one partner withdraws physical intimacya situation that both stirs up and is the result of a hornets' nest of issues. In Fifty Words, Weller piles on revelation after revelation with regard to Jan's and Adam's personalities, past histories and current motives: Jan is a work-obsessed perfectionist, Adam's little architectural firm is failing, Jan never wanted to be a parent in the first place, Adam indulges their son, Jan hates Adam "for making me have a child" and Adam hates Jan for "the way you refuse to let me love you the way I want to."
Eventually, the ever-thickening sheaf of issues becomes too much for a 90-minute play, but it's held togetherand saved from tipping towards the ridiculousby the strength and veracity of Keberlein and Cox as staged by Profiles artistic director Joe Jahraus, who embraces the play's swiftly changing rhythms. The play is abetted by scenic designer Thad Hallstein's stylish, colorful but claustrophobic upscale kitchen in a Brooklyn brownstone.