Stage Kiss, a play by Sarah Ruhl, produced by the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada. Seen August 11, 2018.
In this comedy/farce, a pair of bitter ex-lovers are cast as the lead characters in a comically awful play in which they play current lovers. The exes reunite, discover they cannot continue their affair, and then resume their everyday lives.
First, the production itself -- it's all terrific. The actors (starring Fiona Byrne as She, and Martin Happer as He) were excellent, as were the stagecraft and directing. I loved watching Fiona Byrne as the lover/wife who resumes an affair off-stage with her ex-lover He. I found myself watching her face -- in many instances, just before a confrontation, confusion, laughter, goofiness, anger all fly over her face in a couple of seconds. And Martin Happer, with his square jaw, Bad Boy good looks, and affability, is very good as He. The entire cast is wonderful.
But the play itself left me cold. There are funny spots, particularly early on, as the predictable plot is taking shape. We all know that the two ex-lovers will race to his apartment for sex within a few minutes -- after all, they hardly seem bitter or angry with each other. And neither character expresses any real reservations. What's to stop them? The plot itself has too many absurdities to describe, and that in itself is okay (it is a comic farce, after all).
What bothers me is the sense that the playwright seems to have set out to write a "summer festival comedy". She has the commercial concept -- the ex lovers/actors playing lovers in a play within the play -- and she draws the stereotypical characters to fit into the concept. Sort of like paint-by-numbers. Along the way, we get bursts of the word "fuck", some mild romping in bed, disconnected philosophizing about the "soul" and religion, and demonstrations of how fractured family life is (I think this is meant to congratulate us in the audience for attending such a contemporary and sophisticated play). None of this is convincing, not much is funny (the laughs slowly get more and more strained as we go along).
At the end of this play, what did I actually see? I'm not sure I can describe it. I'm glad that She returns to her boring but decent husband. I'm glad that He gives up on his affair with her in a friendly way. But I wish I liked the play more.
