Sometimes you see something you wish everyone could see. I’m thinking not only of playwright Donald Steele’s writing, which is always engaging, but also of how it was staged tonight, in an elegant apartment in the west village, where actors Shauna Bloom and John Lampe plied their trade in the most noteworthy fashion.
The audience was strewn about sitting on chairs and leather couches while the actors moved freely through a living space the script defined as a hotel room. The sheer three-dimensionality of the experience was striking. It made me aware how much the standard linear arrangement — rows of seats looking at a somewhat distant stage — suddenly seems to lack a third dimension.
He is young. She is older. They have met here by arrangement in a hotel room in a city where neither of them lives. She has done the arranging.
It would be unfair to tell you anything more, except to say that the next hour will be full of revelations, an unfolding if you will, a combination of spoken and unspoken sentiments that summon up something as three-dimensional as real life.
Shauna Bloom (Karen) and John Lampe (John) are natural actors. Bloom’s face registers emotions to which the words she is about to say bear witness. Lampe is expressive even when he’s understated, a rare quality. Both actors give us the rhythms of speech as we know it, with a dangerous undertow of meaning, perfect for a Donald Steele script.
In The Frame
Written and directed by Donald Steele. With Shauna Bloom and John Lampe. Only remaining date not sold out Nov. 20, 3PM; 2 Horatio St. NYC. Tickets/contact: steeledonald1@gmail.com.
