Playwright: Sherod Santos. At: The Side Project, 1439 W. Jarvis Ave. Tickets: 773-340-0140; www.thesideproject.net; $20. Runs through: June 30
The men are too old for The Zoo Story, and the surrounding landscape too well-tended for Waiting For Godot. The pastoral setting also precludes our play being The Dumbwaiter, though the action will soon take on Pinteresque elements to assure us, beyond any doubt, that we haven't stumbled upon a dinner-theater production of I'm Not Rappaport.
So what distinguishes this particular day and this particular pair of graybeards? Their customary afternoon chess game begins innocuously enoughuntil Gus feeds the pigeons, in defiance of park regulations and Max's warnings. Later, when our petty malefactor, having lost the first match, goes to fetch beer and sandwiches, he returns to find Max missing and, in his place, a gentleman outfitted with a natty suit, a gold-topped walking-stick and an African accent. The stranger proceeds to interrogate, then brutalize, a bewildered Gus, and when the latter has been reduced to helpless compliance, orders him to commit a terrible atrocity. Max reappears to find his distraught companion unsure of what has occurred, but they agree that the wise course is not to dwell on the incident.
The very name "People's Park" hints at either a functioning dictatorship, or a recently-liberated one still acclimating to its newly-granted freedom. Then again, American poet-turned-playwright Sherod Santos could be commenting on civil obedience as the price we pay for maintaining the peace. Gus remarks on his wife's suspicions regarding her husband's friendship with Max and their activities at "The Palace"a spot that might have been a government office, a fraternal lodge or a covert-ops prison, but has been recently bombed to smithereens by an unknown terrorist. Are Max and Gus remnants of a deposed regime, carefully concealing their past crimes? Or are they victims, still haunted by memories of collaborating with their oppressors in order to survive?
Ellipses are more acceptable in poetry than in plays, rendering Santos' 70-minute scenario enigmatic beyond the limits of its genre. What makes us care about Max and Gus, nevertheless, is the dynamic generated by Don Bender and Vincent L. Lonergan, two of the storefront circuit's most popular attractive older men. Their foozly camaraderie charms us immediately before menace intrudes in the form of Matthew Lloyd's mysterious Man With Cane. Under Adam Webster's unhurried direction, the chemistry of these three actors are enough to send us home musing on the precarious fates of humble citizens and birds.