THEATER
REVIEW | 'THE SAFETY NET'
A Still Midlife, With Crisis
Published: September 27, 2005
David, an immigration lawyer
very close to making partner, says he is absolutely brilliant at filling out
forms. Played by Jason Pugatch, who has the Midwestern good looks of Will Ferrell, he
has accepted boredom as his lot in life. Christopher Kyle's "Safety
Net," a thoughtful midlife-crisis drama that touches on everything from
the racial prejudices of the liberal elite to the nature-nurture debate, is a
portrait of a man going through the motions.
"Do you ever feel like we're just sitting next to
each other on a plane, passing time, amusing each other?" asks his
neurotic wife, Sonya (Eva Kaminsky, in a splendid turn). "But when we land
we'll go in opposite directions and never meet again."
Obviously, there's trouble
here, but everything changes when David's brother dies in a drunk-driving
accident, leaving behind a pregnant African-American fiancée. After first
suspecting that LaShonda (Tinashe Kajese) wanted to extort money from his
parents, David decides to find ways to help her. First it's small favors like
buying groceries, but soon he's buying her a car and organizing his schedule
around visits to see her. David may be trying to make up for mistakes he made
with his brother, who was adopted, or he may be taking his place.
Credit the director, Martha
Banta, with a brisk and finely tuned production, assisted by J. Wiese's crafty
design, a black box with walls that fold out into beds and clocks. Mark Setlock
offers a funny turn as a friend, Rick, who still says "awesome" and
brags about his schoolboy conquests. Mr. Pugatch projects the right blandness for
David, though one wishes his performance developed as much as the character
does.
The playwright hints at a
number of twists to send you reeling. Is LaShonda really pregnant? Does David
want her baby? And what really happened between David and his brother?
The play ends pointedly in
an airport - remember Sonya's plane metaphor - and while David's character
development is predictable, Mr. Kyle, to his credit, refuses to tie things up
neatly. What happens to David? Well, the playwright asks, what do you think?
"The Safety
Net" runs through Sunday at the Michael Weller Theater,
(212) 397-2918.