September 18, 2004
PARK LABREA/BEVERLY PRESS

'Blue Surge'

By Dave DePino

Sandy (Kristy Kidd), barely out of her teenage years, grew up in a small city in the Midwest in a less than Ozzie and Harriet family. With little education and less self-worth, she finds the only job open to her limited qualifications-turning tricks as a masseuse in a massage parlor. Sandy doesn't seem to mind the work and the money's good, though she resents splitting her earnings with the house. Her impersonal, almost hostile personality and minimal massage abilities don't seem suited to a trade where allure and touch are so important. But, Sandy's new at it. She might like something better out of life, if she knew what was out there, but her world is unfortunately small. Enter: a nervous client, Curt (Josh Levy). Their encounter does not go well. Re-do that same scene with savvy and sassy Heather (Andrea Davis). Her customer, Doug (Greg Hoyt), is hot to trot and strips buck naked in the split second it takes him to say, "Police, this is a bust!" The two men, also best friends, are undercover cops working a sting operation in a rather dumb and dumber fashion. The girls don't get arrested, but the cops get written up for blowing the bust.

Curt, mid thirties, takes a liking to the much younger Sandy, a platonic liking as he tries to convince himself and his fiance, Beth (Julie Upton), and it very well might be just that. Meanwhile, Doug begins seeing Heather on a regular, but not platonic, basis. Doug and Heather's lives seem like one great big, comic relief fallback to offset their friends' thirtysomething/twentysomething angst. It is here, with Curt and Sandy, and also Beth, that the sadness and poignance of Rebecca Gilman's play, "Blue Surge" begins to tug at the heartstrings. It seems that none of these three basically good people will be able to dodge the emotional bullet that is headed their way.
Things are not always what they seem. Beth and Curt are not really having problems because of Sandy, but because Curt thinks, since Beth comes from money, she must be looking down on him. He doesn't see that, in the same way, he, with a respectable job, is looking down on Sandy for doing what she is doing. Socio-economics and Individual Happiness 101: Beth is together enough, with means, to move on; Sandy is already doing what she feels she wants to do; even the party duo are creating a life for themselves; so it is only poor Curt who can't seem to make all the different stratas of his little circle jibe. Well, Curt, playwright Gilman thinks they don't have to.
As Curt, Levy could easily come across as a wimp, but manages to take everything Gilman throws at him. He maintains his good-guy status straight through in a nicely nuanced turn. By play's end, he digs deep inside to quietly begin purging his pain. The likable Kidd cautiously allows her young hooker to cope with life through toughness and self-respect, slow coming and hard earned. In a few short scenes, Upton helps shape major plot turns, adding plausibility. Hoyt and Davis significantly change the emotional temperature of the play's drama on more than one occasion, most times while offering laughs.
Gilman likes to play with real, raw nerves. She has an understanding of where people are at in their lives and goes for their vulnerabilities with little or no mercy. As writer, she force-feeds her characters life on life's terms, not their own. Her no-nonsense look at these folks is compelling. On the minus side, the play is a tad overwritten in the last quarter, but Gilman offers a terrifically realistic finish without tying up all the loose ends. "Blue Surge" is no easy task for a director to interpret, but Anthony Meindl, of the award winning MetaTheatre Company, is up to the task, never compromising performances to fit the script, but expertly guiding his players to make the script breathe on its own. In addition, his creativity for the many scene changes is very clever with scantily clad lovelies and lots of curtaining. Sara Huddleston (set/sound), Matt Richter (lights) and Jane Kim (costumes) make up the fine design team.
MetaTheatre Company at the Third Street Theatre; 8140 West Third Street West Hollywood; Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m.; Sunday at 5:00 p.m.; through October 17; $20; (323) 993-7113.