It ties your stomach in knots, then playfully pulls the string to release the tension with a laugh.
“Really Really,” at Arlington’s Signature Theatre through March 25th, is both a stinging indictment of the “Me Generation,” and, perhaps, a wagging finger at those who raised them.
Set on a present-day college campus, the play begins with two coeds getting home from a night of hard partying. They’re drunk and giggling, but something happened at that party from which they've returned; was it rape between Leigh and Davis (played by Bethany Anne Lind and Jake Odmark), or was it consensual sex between a guy who’s known as almost saintly and a girl who has a boyfriend ? There are reasons to doubt both of these two, and almost all the other characters, too. After all, the “Me” kids are each looking after #1. Whether it’s a potential character witness who refuses to help for fear of “getting involved,” or the sister of Leigh, urging her to get what she can out of the situation.
So, on the surface, we have an old-fashioned “He said, She said” story which keeps the audience guessing—actually, more like switching sides, with each layer peeled away. And while the story keeps the viewer’s opinion switching back and forth, the amazing set is designed with a “She” side and a “He” side that has the viewer’s head physically turning from side to side, as the action goes from the girls’ neat apartment to the guys’ crib, complete with crushed beer cans and an X-box.
Playwright Paul Downs Colaizzo has a great ear for the kind of speech patterns that these people would truly have in real life, especially for the characters of Haley, the sister of the accusing, and Cooper, the slacker with a million ways to hurl an insult. Cooper is played by Evan Casey, who was only “so-so” in “The Boy Detective Fails,” but really delivers the goods here.
There isn’t a weak link among the cast, though Lauren Culpepper, as Grace, is given two monologues that are too obvious and, frankly, too lengthy.
If I haven’t described the plot in more detail, it’s because there are as many twists as there are characters. Everyone has a secret, and some of them are darker than we would have dared guess in the first act.
There are no heroes in “Really Really,” only people doing what they have to do to get ahead. Is this the inevitable result of kids who grew up with Real Housewives, Survivors and people who stop being polite and start living in the Real World? Or is it the fault of their parents, who made sure that every kid on the team got a trophy, whether they deserved it or not? Either way, the outcome is disturbing, and Colaizzo’s pen punctures the “balloon” that these ruthless “risers” think they are.
“Really Really”
Written By Paul Downs Colaizzo
Directed By Matthew Gardiner
2 Hours, 1 Intermission
For tickets and more info: http://www.Signature-Theatre.org
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