Playwright: Sarah Ruhl . At: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn. Phone: 312-443-3800; $25-$78. Runs through: June 5
How do actors navigate between fantasy and reality when it comes to fleshing out their own love lives? Do they get corrupted by all the flowery text they embody and spout onstage, or are they better at channelling timeless artistic insights into their own romantic private lives?
These are just a few questions posited by former Chicago-area playwright Sarah Ruhl in her world premiere romantic comedy Stage Kiss, now puckering up to audiences at the Goodman Theatre.
However, my question for Ruhl is whether she intends Stage Kiss to be an all-out backstage farce, or a thoughtful comedy exploring larger perceptions of identity and emotional states of people in and around the theater community. As it stands, Stage Kiss sloppily gives lip service to both approaches.
The ensuing stylistic jumble has its entertaining farcical moments, but the serious side of things do not feel at all remarkable when Ruhl's handling of profound questions on love and relationships comes off as only a mild flirtation.
Stage Kiss focuses on an married actress (a comically expert and physical performance from Jenny Bacon) who is torn whether or not to rekindle a relationship with a former flame (an appropriately swaggering and dashing Mark L. Montgomery) who is coincidentally cast opposite her in a regional revival of a flop 1930s drawing room comedy. And when the lovers make that ill-advised carnal leap, they have to deal with the ensuing fallout from their loved ones.
Part of the problem with Stage Kiss is that Ruhl offers up generalized characters who are presumptuously meant to represent some sort of universal truth (why else would Ruhl pretentiously name the leading lady "She" and the leading man as "He"?). The supporting characters are even less-defined, ranging from the long-suffering and wealthy character of "Husband" (one of two roles for a solid Scott Jaeck), to the impudent and bitter daughter Angela (a very good Goodman debut for Sarah Tolan-Mee, though I wonder why this persona lucked out with a real name instead of the utilitarian "Daughter").
With such generic characterizations, it becomes much easier to laugh at these people than really empathize with their confused struggles. Our involvement is further diminished since Ruhl passingly emphasizes the professional stakes of her theater artists (particularly the laughable wishy-washy "Director" of Ross Lehman, who appears strangely unaffected by his devastatingly bad reviews).
No doubt Ruhl and director Jessica Thebus draw upon plenty of first-hand experience to poke fun of theater folk and their many quirky practices (embodied very well in the sturdy supporting work of Jeffrey Carlson and Erica Elam in multiple roles). And there's no denying the lovely production values of Stage Kiss, led by Todd Rosenthal's clever and lavish sets of wobbly stage scenery and grotty apartments and Linda Roethke's eminently appropriate costumes of rehearsal gear and 1930s period glamour for the wealthy swells.
However, the fact that the backstage farcical bits of Stage Kiss garner a bigger audience response than the more serious moments only show up the disappointing unevenness of the entire enterprise. Stage Kiss certainly works as light entertainment, but it ultimately doesn't live up to its larger ambitions.
