Sunday, June 14, 2009 | A+E, Theater, Reviews
Happy ‘Days’

Engaging ‘End’ a nice surprise

Courtesy of Lisa Adler/Horizon Theatre
From left: Maia Knispel, Stacy Melich, Robin Bloodworth and Nick Arapoglou

“END DAYS”
Horizon Theatre
404-584-7450
www.horizontheatre.com
Through June 28

BY BERT OSBORNE

Perhaps directors are only as good as their material. Having reviewed local theater in the early-to-mid-’90s, having moved on to other things, and now having been back on the beat for five years, I’m fairly mystified by the case of Heidi Cline. As much as I remember admiring most of her earlier work (be it "The Seagull" or "A Lie of the Mind"), that’s how much I haven’t liked most of her later stuff—from "Café Puttanesca" to "Secrets of a Soccer Mom," and especially including her many projects with Jeff McKerley, a favorite leading man (of hers, not mine). Their latest collaboration, currently running at the Shakespeare Tavern, is a campy "The Mystery of Irma Vep" you couldn’t pay me to see.
 
What happened while I was gone? Outside of a few musical chestnuts (notably, the Tavern’s 2007 "Cabaret"), Cline seems to have foregone the classics for populist drivel. If I hadn’t spent my time away by rubbing elbows with Hollywood celebrities—all in the name of journalism, natch—I’d be tempted to label Cline some kind of a sellout. Instead, I’ll simply confess that I’m at a point where, when I notice she’s directing a particular show, I get nervous.
 
Or maybe I’m full of it, since the fact is that Cline is among our more steadily employed directors. As proof, consider that "Irma Vep" bowed a mere week after Cline’s Horizon staging of "End Days," another keen and observant dysfunctional-family dramedy by Deborah Zoe Laufer (who penned last season’s "The Last Schwartz"). It’s ironic that so much of the story involves scientific fact and "concrete" proof clashing with spiritual faith and personal opinion, but I’ll hand it to her: Whether or not it’s due to working with the best script she’s had in years, "End Days" is Cline's best work in years, too.
 
Rarely known for her stylistic touches, here, under the scenic/projection design of John Thigpen, Cline creates a visually compelling universe for the play, which mostly unfolds in a home where mother Sylvia (Stacy Melich), father Arthur (Robin Bloodworth) and daughter Rachel (Maia Knispel) grapple with the meaning of life in a post-9/11 world. The set is flanked by imposing girders, ominous reminders of ground zero, and it's lined with hanging planets, the largest of which doubles as a screen to establish different locales (dig the Escher-inspired cluster of Starbucks shops). That's because Laufer soon gets into a lot of astrophysical talk—with Stephen Hawking himself, as a figment of Rachel’s imagination (Adam Fristoe, equally engaging as Jesus, a figment of Sylvia’s).
 
What keeps "End Days" grounded is the character of Nelson, a relatively down-to-earth, if goofy, kid next door. His blossoming romance with Rachel provides a sweet, necessary counterpoint to the show’s flights of fancy. Capping a season that also includes work in "The Snow Queen" and "Speech & Debate," actor Nick Arapoglou truly comes into his own, genuinely endearing in a role that could’ve felt like a contrived airhead, for whom the possibility of a biblical Rapture is "like a once-in-a-lifetime event," or who relies on a "cheat sheet" to help him with the "art of conversation" in wooing Rachel ("How ’bout this weather?," one of his index cards reads). 
 
Laufer’s moral might be none too earthshaking: "Knowing that death is inevitable makes every moment of life worth living." But in the spirit of making amends before it's too late, and no matter whether you chalk it up to God or an intergalactic implosion, it's reassuring to report that if the world ended tomorrow, Cline has caught a break just in time. SP