Plays of love and compassion
By Dean Taylor

Theater
“Compassion” and “The Loner”
Wed–Sat Apr 9–12, 8pm
Sun, Apr 13, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
80 pesos

Love is an inconvenience to be avoided at all costs. This, at least, is the conviction of Joey, who wants to live life on his terms and his terms only. Any kind of intimate relationship would get in the way of doing what he wants when he wants. All well and good until he meets a feisty female he is unable to resist. Joey is in for a devastating shock and his life is changed forever.

This is the subject of “The Loner,” one of a pair of award-winning plays by Dean Taylor. The other play, “Compassion,” explores just how far compassion should go in dealing with people crumbled by adversity. Is it justifiable to use shock tactics to shake them up?

Two people sit at opposite ends of a park bench: a young man in despair because his girlfriend just dumped him and an older woman absorbed in a book, having long since withdrawn from life after a series of debilitating disappointments.

Enter the General, who immediately berates the two for their self-absorption and inability to relate to one another. Who is the General? He claims to be a self-appointed general in the army of compassion and when the two fight back, he berates them even more mercilessly, burrowing deep into their souls to free them from melancholia and withdrawal. An old adage claims all is fair in love and war and, to the General, this is both.

Ultimately, as far as both plays are concerned, compassion is administered to help people over the rough humps of life, so that in the end they can wring every last drop out of life and live it to the fullest. 

Seven talented and dedicated actors perform in this pair of plays, and some have their own take on the scripts. When Larry Gassler was given “The Loner” to read, he said, “Hey! I am this guy! I’ve said these lines in real life!” Christina Bautista, Larry’s femme fatale in the play, feels that both “The Loner” and “Compassion” are essentially about the same thing, but in a different form. Frank Simons, who plays the General, said for him it is like a Zen master coming back to play with people with love, understanding and compassion.

The other actors are Britt Zaist (the older woman), Nick Beles (the kid who’s been dumped), and Clara Dunham and Michael Gottlieb (responsible for the dumping).

The two plays are presented as dramatized stage readings and both are directed with flair by Michael Gottlieb, who approaches them with an open mind but a firm hand.

Tickets may be purchased at the theater box office or in the Biblioteca courtyard, 10am–1pm.

A Private Lives for our times 

Playreaders Theater
Gun-Shy
Wed–Thu, April 9–10, 7pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6

Gun-Shy, by Richard Dresser, is a no-holds-barred comedy about marriage, divorce, infidelity, infertility, incompatibility, eternal love, household accidents and diets that no one should try. Evie and Duncan have divorced after many years of marriage. Evie is having a tumultuous affair with an aggressively insecure coffee salesman named Carter. Duncan finds himself with Caitlin, a young, extremely weight-conscious gun-control lobbyist. The foursome, all beyond therapy, eventually become snowbound in a New England cabin where they attempt to unravel the maze of their mismatched couplings.

New York magazine called the play “A Private Lives for our times”; “stiletto-sharp dialogue,” said The New York Times; “acerbic barbs accumulate with the density of the ongoing blizzard,” commented Variety, while the Miami Herald wrote “Gun-Shy grabs you from the moment the lights go up and never lets go.”

To bring this zany comedy to life, director Lola Smith has assembled a talented cast that includes Marty Fraser, Richard Koerner, Dennis Pipes, Juan Carlos Vincourt and new reader Crystal Calderoni. Larry Brewer will handle lights and sound.

Performances begin at 7:30pm or earlier if the house is full. The doors open at 7pm.