Knife Edge Productions
presents

FAULT LINES

Written by STEPHEN BELBER
Directed by SHIRA-LEE SHALIT

Featuring
MICHAEL PUZZO, NEIL HOLLAND, CHAZ REUBEN, & DANELLE ELIAV

Set & Lighting: NICK FRANCONE
Costumes: NANCY LEARY
Sound Design: DANIEL SPITALIERE
Technical Director: CHIMMY ANNE GUNN

TBG Theatre
312 West 36th Street
New York, NY 10018
(212) 352-3101 or www.knifeedgeproductions.com
September 4 through September 20, 2014

Two longtime pals meet up in the empty back room of a neighborhood bar. Armed with beers & tequila shots, Jim starts giving Bill a hard time, calling him “old”. (He’s 39.) Jim is still “young”, 38, and digs at Bill both because he’s “old” and married. Jim lays it on thick that he is single, living the life, hitting on the babes, but Bill has to be home for dinner and go to bed early. This ribbing is not so good-natured. Rather harsh, actually. And more than a little obnoxious, even with tequila.

Bill is the serious type. He shares that he would like to be a father, but his wife wants to wait a while. This is obviously a touchy area for Bill, so Jim lays on even more abuse, thinly disguised as joking around. Bill isn’t laughing. Jim finally starts getting to the heart of his agenda. He has phoned Bill several times lately, and Bill hasn’t returned his calls. He wants to know why. It appears Jim has never heard of “drifting apart”, as friends often do with the passage of time.

The already uncomfortable evening is suddenly made worse by the entrance of an incredibly large, annoying, insulting older man, a stranger to them both. The fool crashes into their discussion, pulls up a seat at their table, orders more tequila, and never stops asking loud-mouthed personal questions. Very intimate questions. This is where the “willing suspension of disbelief” comes in. In the real world, Bill and Jim would have picked up their drinks and left the room. Or punched him out. But this being a play, they stick around to be harassed and disgusted by this overbearing moron.

Just when they’ve finally had enough, the stranger announces his “real identity”, then hassles them even more. Plot twists and turns follow, parts of which have more holes than Swiss cheese, but hey, it’s a play. If there’s a moral, it’s this: when a 19-year friendship fades away, just accept that. Don’t make it ugly, too.

The actors are excellently intense. The plot twists at the end are creative. MICHAEL PUZZO as Joe, the stranger, is so repugnant that I personally wanted to strangle him. His roaring questions make the play somewhat monotonous during this segment. The whole while you must ask yourself, why would these two men put up with Joe, much less answer his questions? Playwright’s choice is the only answer.

In the end this is a play about treachery, male unbonding, and pushing the boundaries of intrusion into the private lives of others. Even “friends” can hatch evil plots. And ruin lives.

-Karen D’Onofrio-