Sunday, February 01, 2009
A+E, Theater, Reviews

Net loss

‘Soccer Mom’ fails to score

BY BERT OSBORNE
 
That soccer moms are people, too, is hardly a very profound revelation. Just like real women—or, at least, those in your typical Lifetime movie—the three characters in Kathleen Clark’s comedy "Secrets of a Soccer Mom" kick around all the usual issues: extramarital affairs; sacrificing careers for families and individuality for motherhood; living with the choices they’ve made, by appreciating what they’ve got instead of regretting what they’ve missed; losing their youthful idealism but gaining a new perspective on life. Ho-hum. What’s the big secret?
 
Loosely directed by Heidi Cline for Theatre in the Square, the play is conceived from the sidelines of a school soccer match, where, between heart-to-heart girl talks, Nancy (Tess Malis Kincaid), Alison (Chinai Hardy) and Lynn (Rebekah Baty Hammer) keep tabs on the game. Periodically, they shout to unseen husbands, kids and other mothers—or ogle a sexy referee/gym teacher—across the field, somewhere beyond the last row of the theater.

Most of the action happens out of our view, so they take turns darting offstage for a few minutes, returning to give us color commentary or an instant replay of sorts. No better, the day culminates in a mother-son scrimmage that requires the actresses to (awkwardly) pantomime the highlights of their game.
 
Sound designer Chris Bartelski drops the ball in creating any aural ambiance for such an allegedly electric, well-attended sporting event: A whistle occasionally blows, but that’s about it. The tacky set (by Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay) employs lots of Astro Turf, hanging soccer nets, discarded toys, a bizarre hole in one wall and a painted backdrop overcrowded with puffy clouds a la an illustrated children’s book. Directly proportionate to the roles they’re playing, the performances are strictly routine. It may be giving the cast more credit than it deserves to note that, as one of them puts it, "Hard work and honest effort are more important than victory." How oddly telling, though, that she’s quoting these words of wisdom from her copy of "Soccer for Dummies."
 
Stage Door Players artistic director Robert Egizio’s generally lively "Spreading It Around," the U.S. premiere of a comedy by Canadian Londos D’Arrigo, begins with an engaging premise. Two elderly singles, widowed residents of an affluent retirement community, devise a plan to invest their sizable financial resources in a worthy cause, "making a difference" and "doing something meaningful" for the less fortunate—much to the chagrin of sundry money-grubbing relatives, who’d rather have them committed as "demented do-gooders spending [their] inheritance."
 
A lot of the geriatric one-liners—jokes about "Grannies Gone Wild" videos and such—are decidedly well-aimed at the group’s (traditionally older) audience, and the production features yet another immaculate set by its resident scenic designer, the gifted Chuck Welcome. While the couple is agreeably portrayed by Holly Stevenson and Brink Miller, the inevitable introduction of her irresponsible son and shrewish daughter-in-law—not-so-industriously played by Jacob York and Amanda Cucher—loses points for trafficking in sitcom stereotypes. SP

DULY NOTED: In tedious repertory performances of Steve Martin’s "The Underpants" and A.R. Gurney’s "Sylvia," Onstage Atlanta seems to spread itself too thin, with a definite lack of style and skill to fully serve either comedy. If nothing else, the former (co-directed by Charlie Miller and Cathe Hall Payne) moves along at a relatively constant pace, which can’t be said for the latter (aimlessly staged by Michael Henry Harris). In both cases, the brightest spots are among the smallest bits—funny supporting turns by Marcelo Banderas (in the first) and Doug Graham (in the second). Through Feb. 22. 404-897-1802. www.onstageatlanta.com.