CIVIL UNREST
When I walked into the very small and incredibly intimate Broadwater Studio Theatre, I immediately thought about Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love, about a couple of loners looking to connect, given the small, Western-style motel room designed by Joel Daavid. But the world premiere of Shem Bitterman‘s The Civil Twilight, directed with emotional insight and depth by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky, is clearly about two very different people in a seedy motel room. Aside from Shepard, this is the most Shepard-like play I have ever seen. No doubt fans of Shepard will absolutely be drawn into this “fly on the wall” experience, stuck in a small room with flawed characters trying to manipulate each other into getting what they think they want or need. Enthralling throughout, this 80-minute world premiere one act demands attention because you continually want to know what is going to happen next.
This zigzagging thriller takes place over a single night when a tornado-filled storm brings down a commuter plane in the middle of nowhere. With no local hotel rooms available nearby, a popular radio personality winds up trapped in a seedy motel room somewhere in the Midwest with his biggest fan, a local housewife on her way to California. And much like Stephen King’s Misery, so begins a deadly game of trust and recrimination from the moment the two discover a dead ferret in the bathroom. And perhaps, as we get to know them, these two exquisitely written and complex characters with secrets to share, which, when revealed, switch the action from fun to incredibly life-threatening in the blink of an eye, will keep us guessing which one is the most off-balance.
The two actors are stunning. Taylor Gilbert is Ann Carlson, a talkative midwestern housewife, an award-winning cake-baker, and garage exercise teacher, and Andrew Elvis Miller is the “voice of the plains” deejay John Pine, whose reason for trying to get out of town turns out to be more sinister than his mild-mannered persona reveals. But Miller always communicates the confusion going on in his soul with little hints of the horror he left behind flashing through his mind each time he reaches for one of the small bottles of gin he took from business class on the plane, most likely to drown out what happened prior to his dash to the airport to catch the doomed flight.
And Ann, ever the emotionally-attached guidance counselor of a mom and friend, after revealing way too much about her life which could be used against her by this stranger, at first thinks John may be her more permanent means to get out of town, especially since he appears to be a successful businessman with a good income, a nice house, that, unfortunately, also comes with a beautiful wife, two kids and a dog, which he often talks about on his radio show. It’s the kind of life Ann dreams about for herself, but at what cost is she willing to achieve it?
Hope is the one thing that motivates Ann to keep on keeping on, even in the face of her dead-end life, until given a chance to start over, yet again, in another place with another man. But why does she keep choosing the wrong one? And how can John possibly hope to escape from his past, which is now hitting local headlines? Who is playing whom for their own purposes – good or evil?
Tech credits are superb in the small space, including Chris Moscatiello‘s sound, which adds in elements of the storm (more please!), Jenna Bergstraesser‘s costumes and Roget Bellon‘s original score.
photos of Taylor Gilbert and Andrew Elvis Miller by Lizzie Kimball
The Civil Twilight
People with Plays in association with Road Theatre
Broadwater Studio Theatre, 1076 Lillian Way in Hollywood
Fri and Sat at 8; Sun at 2
ends on November 24, 2024 EXTENDED to December 22, 2024
for tickets ($20-$45), visit Civil Twilight