Really, how can you go wrong at an 80-minute play at the comfortable quaint Kirk Theatre at Theatre Row?
Victor L. Cahn’s Embraceable Me is a light two-person progression of a relationship. There are sometimes a little too many audience asides, some lines that could have cut deeper, even some interesting character background that might have been explored more, but for the most part you come down to liking Edward and Allison as their story unfolds in flashbacks and those asides. For me the play really gets going at the mid-way point, past all the fits and starts of the first half where the audience finds out where we are and the solid places we get back to.
The character of Edward, played perfectly by Scott Barrow is written a little too cliché for my tastes but Barrow fleshes him out rather nicely by mid point, whereas Keira Naughton’s Allison kinda ‘circles the ol’ airport’ a bit on who and what she’s made out of (to no fault of a believable Naughton). Mostly by the middle to the end you’re rooting for these two off-kilter people and even though the conclusion was a little light, Cahn’s piece is a good time.
As my friend Jennifer remarked, it is quite the task to remember all that dialogue and seeing as Barrow and Naughton are your only two choices of who to like (or not) they are engaging as far as this play goes. Kudos also goes to Carolyn Wong for her perfect lighting design as times and places change all on one set.
Embraceable Me at Theatre Row’s Kirk Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St. runs until November 14. For tickets, go to ticketcentral.com
Ralph Greco, Jr.
