Existential absurdity of 'Line' is worth waiting in line for
By Candace Chaney
CONTRIBUTING THEATER CRITIC
Whenever I rode in a car as a kid, I used to wonder who was in the front of the line. What car was in front? And on what road? Was there some road that led to the ocean and a car parked there in the sand and that car was deemed "first"?
As children, we quickly learn that the merits of a so-called civilized, orderly life just might hinge on the ability to form single-file lines without pushing and shoving. As adults, we cavalierly ignore this skill when it suits us, worming our way to the front of the line outside Macy's on Black Friday.
But just what is a line? And why?
Balagula Theatre's latest production, Line by Israel Horowitz, is ripe material for such ponderances.
One of the most widely produced plays internationally, and the longest running off-off-Broadway show, Line centers on five people from various cross-sections of society competing, conniving, pushing and shoving to be first in line. Tellingly, we never learn why they are waiting in line. It is not even clear whether the characters know. The Sistine Chapel? An after-Thanksgiving sale? Tickets to see the Spice Girls reunion tour?
Maybe it is something deeper: our ingrained, biological imperative to be first, to get the best cut of meat. Or maybe our psychological drive to be deemed special, important, standing out from the crowd. Or maybe it is a manifestation of our socially encoded sense of hierarchy.
The great thing about this production is that it could be any or all or none of those things.
Balagula Theatre's artistic director and veteran Lexington actor Ryan Case does an excellent job in his directorial debut, creating an experience that is highly entertaining, rife with meaning, and most impressive, accessible to even the most varied audiences.
At just an hour long, Case's vision of Line is a crowd pleaser, mostly because it can be enjoyed and interpreted on just about every level, from the delightfully rollicking, thematically edgy surface comedy to the deeper implications that deem such comedy "dark." It is a rare show in its ability to truly offer something for everyone without compromising its artistic integrity.
And even though this production's implications can be quite serious, one of its most refreshing qualities is that it doesn't take itself so.
This is in large part due to a colorful assembly of robustly flawed characters, whose absurd motivations and petty power struggles reveal the darker side of humanity without being melodramatic or heavy-handed.
Ed Desiato's Fleming is particularly enjoyable as the man who camped out all night to earn his spot as first in line, only to be coyly displaced by the young, quirkily impassioned Stephen (Gareth Evans). Debbie Sharp gives a juicy performance as Molly, a married woman who, shall we say, cuckolds her way to the top. Lew Bowling and Pete Sears nicely round out the cast of competitors as men with differing "philosophies" about how to get ahead in life. Bowling's character, Dolan, pretends to be happy anywhere near the top, only to steal first place when you least expect it, while Sears' character, Arnoll, just struggles to orchestrate a life with "no surprises," even if this secretly causes him enduring disappointments.
Billed as a drama, this is a show that is seriously funny and universally accessible in the situation it presents. Who has not fretted about our place in line? Our place in life? Aren't the lengths we go to to secure our "success" just a little bit absurd and more than a little undignified?
See this show if you want to write existential essays. Or if you just want to spend an hour blowing off steam by laughing at the absurdity of your own species. Either way, it is a guaranteed good time.
Oh, and try to get there early.