Beane is an eccentric, isolated man whose world we learn—thanks to a nifty flourish by set designer Dan Schuy—is closing in on him. He response is pragmatic: he shrinks his life to fit his worldview. Beane tosses overboard anything that brings with it the entanglements of ambiguity and by the time ArtsWest’s production of “Love Song” opens on his Spartan little apartment we find that he has been remarkably thorough.

“I think objects are deceptive,” says Beane. “I don’t want to have a fork if it’s going to lie to me.”
Then Beane gets hit by something that is hard to throw aside: He falls in love. A pretty thief named Molly breaks into his apartment and is so offended by the slim pickings that she sticks around to have it out with him. By the time she walks out, she’s taken with her more than Beane’s three pair of tube socks.

With “Love Song” playwright John Kolvenbach explores the heart’s seismic effect on the tidy walls we build around our lives.
You don’t get very far into the play before the dialogue captures your attention. Kolvenbach is a talented writer whose wit flows through the script in surprising riffs. He has particular fun with Beane’s uptight sister, Joan, and her husband, Harry. As Joan, Heather Hawkins gets the best lines in the play and she doesn’t hold back. Her tirades against interns at her workplace (she has a long history of firing them) and her fumbling attempt to play hooky from work (a first for her) ignited a constant roll of laughter from the audience.

It can be challenging for an actor when your partner is getting the juiciest lines and Nick DeSantis puts in a sly performance as Harry. He does for Hawkins what George Burns did for Gracie, ramping up her performance by egging her on. He is able to telegraph both his exasperation and affection for Joan, painting a portrait of an oddly functional couple.

Onstage chemistry is often described as “simmering” but with Hawkins and DeSantis it reaches a boil. They are so funny together they threaten to transform the play into a monoculture of comedy. Director Kate Witt has other plans for her production. She wants her audience to feel the unsettling effect love brings to Beane’s constricted life and its reverberations into the marriage of Harry and Joan. To that purpose she gets a lot of help from Christopher Zinovitch.

As Beane, Zinovitch anchors the emotional range of the play. He has to take his character on two journeys at once. First, from the high-octane banter of Joan and Harry’s apartment back to the willful loneliness of his own. And then into a gonzo embrace of life’s possibilities as Molly unravels the foundation of his self-imposed exile.

Beane is an artless creature, shaped by a lifetime of avoiding any socializing influences except his sister. Zinovitch brings an aura of guilelessness to Beane that keeps you on his side as he pulls you into his eccentric worldview.

Cindy Bradder has her work cut for her as Molly. She is the catalyst for the story and she makes you believe in Beane’s infatuation. Bradder’s Molly is quirky enough and stubborn enough to pry Beane loose from his hermit’s life. The interactions between Beane and Molly are often combative and always entertaining and Bradder brings the requisite energy to her role. It’s in one of Beane’s defensive responses to Molly’s exasperation at his lifestyle that we are introduced to the revelation about lying forks.

“Love Song” is a supple story that asks its characters to bend and change. There are no catastrophic events where lives are shattered and forced into a new orbit. Instead, Beane, Molly, Joan and Harry begin to breathe a little more and respond to the dizzying effect of being truly alive. The transformations are soft and Witt guides her actors with a sure hand, creating a touching undercurrent to the humor that percolates through the script. When the lights come on you find you’ve been charmed and that’s an experience worth having.

A complete program for the play is available at the 1st link above.
An interview with the director Kate Witt and one of the stars Christopher Zinovitch plus audio excerpts from the play are available for download at the 2nd link above.

LOVE SONG
at ArtsWest
4711 California Ave SW, Seattle, WA (206) 938-0339
by John Kolvenbach
Directed by Kate Witt
Featuring Cindy Bradder, Nick DeSantis, Heather Hawkins, and Christopher Zinovitch
Now through February 21, 2010

Still photography by Matt Durham http://mattdurhamphotography.com/