By Dan Shaw
You have probably spent a lot of time this snowbound winter in front of the television. Netflix, Showtime and PBS notwithstanding, you’ve probably realized that television is actually getting worse, not better — sitcoms with 90-second scenes, dramas that depend on violence instead of dialogue to stir your emotions. Even hot HBO shows like Girls and Looking are so disjointed with so many scene changes packed into 30 minutes that it’s next-to-impossible to be absorbed or moved by them. And that is just one reason why Barrington Stage Company’s annual 10 x 10 New Play Festival (running through March 2) is so satisfying and remarkable. These ten, ten-minute plays are more engaging, affecting and entertaining than anything I’ve seen recently on TV. They are by turns funny and provocative, often addressing serious issues like Alzheimer’s, unhappy marriages or parent/child struggles with precision and tenderness.
Sitting in Barrington Stage’s intimate black box theater (officially the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle & Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, which many of us still refer to as the old VFW Hall), you are offered two hours that, despite the sometimes grim subject matter, fill you with hope: BSC artistic director Julianne Boyd, along with fellow directors Chris Innvar and Kristen van Ginhoven, have given us versatile acting and inventive writing that lifts your spirits (for the bargain ticket price of $25). In “New Year’s Eve," by David MacGregor, a feisty resident of the Parkview Retirement Home (Robert Zukerman) objects to celebrating New Year’s Eve at 12 noon instead of midnight. He strains to explain to his nurse (Emily Kunkel) that the feelings a heterosexual man has for women at 18 never go away, even if the body can no longer respond as it once did.
In Lynn Rosen’s “I Love You," Zuckerman plays a middle-aged worrywart who frets over the life of his 30-year-old hipster son (John Zdrojeski) who is striving to become his own man. In Suzanne Bradbeer’s “Man the Torpedoes," the always delightful Peggy Phar Wilson plays a widow who has been the caretaker for her elderly best friend and her house, whose son (Matt Neely) is torn about firing her and setting her off into the world on her own. In John Cariani’s “Uh-Oh," a pair of newlyweds (Dina Thomas and Zdrojeski) are bored of being married after only eleven months, and the wife’s solution to their situation is radical, shocking and funny—at least from her perspective. The finale, "Sweetheart Roland," by James McLinden brings together the entire ensemble in a wacky send-up of a fairy tale that has the kooky energy of the best Saturday Night Live skit you ever saw. All of the plays evince a sense of compassion for the troubles and foibles of ordinary people. They are not fashionably dystopian or cynical. They are meticulously compressed dramas, well-wrought short stories brought to vivid life. They are heartfelt and, ultimately, heartwarming. Now celebrating its 20th season, Barrington Stage Company is a cornerstone of the Berkshires’ cultural life, and this year’s “10 x 10" festival is rock solid. 10 x 10 New Play Festival (through March 2, 2014) Barrington Stage Company 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield, MA (413) 236-8888 Thursday -- Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday at 3 p.m. $25 Thursday evenings, Saturday & Sunday matinees; $30 Friday & Saturday evenings
