Phoenix – Cherry Lane Theater, New York

What is with all the romantic comedies about abortion at the moment?  I really came away from this plat with the same feeling I would about a film rom com: the complicated female character who has some things to deal with, the slightly flatter characterisation of the male character, who is supportive and nice and ‘the one she should end up with’, and of course the plot twist, in this case coming early on in the form of a revelation about a pregnancy.

I agree with most of the critics that it was the direction which let this play down.  A lot of the things I didn’t like could have been dealt with by a good director, or not decided upon in the first place.  This included the long set changes where the actors revolved the stage themselves, the phone call between them which was spoken out to the audience, and the short yoga interlude on the part of Julia Stiles (just to show off her skill set?  It certainly didn’t add anything to the play).  I also didn’t like the set, with large-scale paintings behind the actors which were strangely unprofessional.  As in I could have done them, and I have no artistic talent.

Despite these limitations, however, I did enjoy the evening, largely because of the actors.  Julia Stiles was good throughout – she handled an unsympathetic character well, and brought depth to the part of Sue.  James Wirt as Bruce was less even – to begin with I found him a bit stiff, but he grew on me the further through the play we got.  Whether that’s because he relaxed into it, had better dialogue, or because I’ve been conditioned to react to rom com tropes is anyone’s guess.  So for a play with poor set design and direction, which touches on death, religion, climate change and abortion, it was actually quite enjoyable.  Am I already buying tickets to the film coming out with Stiles, Wirt and director Jennifer DeLia as a producer?  No, no I’m not.