A PLAY OUT OF THE BOX
NO, INSIDE THE BOX
NO, OUTSIDE…
One of the finest offerings at this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival is writer/director Patrick Hamilton‘s The Box which runs through June 18 at The Zephyr Theater. The title has a triple-meaning: It refers to a piece of furniture that may or may not have a dead body in it; a puzzle-box story that keeps unravelling; and how we get boxed in when defining the so-called roles of both men and women in today’s woke world.
Succeeding as a dark comedy, The Box starts with Stephen, an unassuming, pacifistic man who has two interests: getting married and a getting a Poli-Sci PhD (well, he’s also into Craft Beers and carpentry — he made the ugly box in his apartment that acts as a coffee table — poor Stephen). At curtain, he cannot decide just how to propose to his long-time girlfriend Alice. Well, he better hurry, as she’s on her way over to his place. Yet walking through the door is Alice’s passive-aggressive dad, a career military man who just happens to be concealing a gun. He’s not happy with his daughter’s choice, and is here to gently but menacingly help Stephen (not “Steve”) to call off the nuptials before they’re even pre. It gets ugly. When Alice shows up, we realize that we’re in some kind of cat-and-mouse game as the two get into a spat about a dark past event that threatens everything they have. And what about the mystery with that box?
Darrell Shipley and Conor McGee
In 80 delicious minutes, this three-hander is thought-provoking, suspenseful, and funny, as I thought, “Wait a minute. What about the ..?” While the script can be tweaked — it’s a mite bit repetitious and predictable (I figured some things out many lines before some characters did) — the evening definitely held my attention. Hamilton’s blocking is inventive, given the confines of a small apartment (and Fringe budget constraints), and the acting is top notch. The clearly athletic Conor McGee disguises himself in the seemingly wimpy Stephen, who we are completely rooting for, until we’re not. Chelsea J. Smith is called upon to play a wide range of emotions in this real-time one-act, and she nails ’em all: giddy, scared, frustrated, shocked, resolute and loving. Darrell Shipley as the combatant patriarch is truly magnificent, meaning he creeped me out, especially when he spoke in a low register. What makes him even more threatening is that we believe this well-built handsome pop would do anything to save one’s life, yet here he is … well, can’t tell you.
The play takes many twists, but none so profound as when the couple find that they are stuck between social mores and their love for each other. Hamilton creates an argument for them that is both truly compelling and sad — we are on the side of both Alice and Stephen as their relationship gets boxed in.
The Box
part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival
The Zephyr Theater, 7456 Melrose Ave.
ends on June 18, 2023 encore performances July 7 and 8, 2023, at 8:15
for tickets, visit The Box’s Fringe Page