Theatre in Review: Summer Shorts 2013, Series B (59E59)Each series of Summer Shorts, the annual one-act play festival, offers a lesson. In the case of this year's Series B, it is this: Sometimes even the thinnest and most well-worn premise can be invigorated by a writer with an eye for the telling detail. Such is the case with Marian Fontana's "Falling Short," which at first appears to offer little more than a standard blind-date premise. Lee is a magazine writer who, when not complaining about her work ("I am writing about the rise of chicken farming in Brooklyn," she says, oozing self-disgust), trolls an Internet dating site for a suitable man; in a fast-paced sequence we see her considering, and dropping, a parade of possible swains. Fontana has a solid grasp of the clichés of the meet-market world, and these, contrasted with Lee's disgruntled dismissals, make for solid, if familiar, fun. There's also nothing out of the ordinary -- at least at first -- about the following scene, either, although Fontana has a sharp eye for certain pretensions of New York life. Lee awaits her date in a trendy restaurant that specializes in "Asian-soul food fusion," offering such delicacies as cornbread-miso soup and cocktails with names like "smore the better." (According to her waiter, "It's got marshmallow- infused vodka, chocolate liquor, and a smoky, locally distilled bourbon for a graham cracker finish.") Her date is Nate, an actor working with an avant-garde theatre group, who pays the bills by appearing at a Renaissance fair in New Jersey. The first thing Lee notices is that Nate has lied about his height; as it happens, both of them have not been forthcoming in their online profiles, and, as the truth comes out, the picture darkens considerably. But Fontana handles this with such delicacy and honesty that, by the end, you'll be positively rooting for them to get together. Even so, "Falling Short" might not work without Alexander Dinelaris' sensitive direction or three perfectly timed performances. Kendra Mylnechuk's Lee moves from cynical resignation to guarded hope so swiftly and subtly that it's hard to take your eyes off her. She has an ideal partner in J.J. Kandel's Eric. Also fine is Shane Patrick Kearns as the oversharing gay waiter, another clichéd role given the kiss of life here; he also appears as all of Lee's Internet discards Fontana is probably best known for her memoir, A Widow's Walk, but on the evidence here, she has real promise as a playwright. Of course, some plays offer a thin premise and nothing more. That's the category under which we must file "Change." It's a reunion play in which Ted and Carla, a married couple in their early 40s, get together with their high-school friend Jordan. The script says Jordan is "dressed like he just left a hardcore punk concert in the mid-'80s," and that's pretty much how he behaves. Ted and Carla haven't seen Jordan in 20 years; he didn't make their wedding because he was in rehab. The initial conversation is mildly disconcerting: Jordan tells Ted and Carla that their children are so cute, "I wanna eat their faces and maybe their feet. Their haunches. I'd like to do maybe one of those plates where it's like 'kids three ways.' Like confit cheeks and miso-marinated feet." Rather than do the sensible thing and throw him out, they agree to smoke pot. Jordan bums $200 for the weed, departs to make a score, and returns with white powder in a little white baggie. In the meantime, we learn that both Ted and Carla were Jordan's high-school sex partners, and that their marriage is a drab, sexless affair, entirely centered around the children. A volatile situation, no? Not really, as "Change" fizzles away in a drug-induced haze. The playwright, Paul Weitz, is so attached to understatement that, with their lack of action and frail, deadpan humor, his plays often barely seem to be plays at all. That's the case here; "Change" proves definitively that watching three people get high is no fun at all. All three actors -- Alex Manette (Ted), Michael D. Dempsey (Jordan), and Allison Daugherty (Carla) -- seem uncomfortable with their roles, and Billy Hopkins' direction is of little help. The final offering of Series B, "Pine Cone Moment," focuses on the widowed Harry and Emma, who are contemplating getting together. It's late at night, Emma has cold feet, and there is a deadline looming, as they are booked on a plane to Disney World in the morning. Meanwhile, Brian, Emma's late husband, and Bunny, Harry's not-so-dearly departed spouse, keep tabs on the situation, kibitzing from the astral plane. The action is blindingly predictable, but at least Alan Zweibel's sentimental four-hander gives us the chance to catch up with two actresses who were familiar faces in the '80s. Caroline Lagerfelt's skill at creating charmingly fragile characters is put to excellent use as Emma, and, as Bunny, Camille Saviola can still curl her face into a withering sneer, lower her eyelashes like a pair of guillotines, and deliver a putdown that lands like a depth charge. Brian Reddy and James Murtagh are fine as Harry and Brian, but this one belongs to the ladies. Fred Berner's direction is perfectly fine. As in Series A, George Xenos' basic set, featuring three hung panels upstage, is filled out with different arrangements of furniture, with Greg MacPherson's lighting setting the mood. Tamara Menear's costumes are well-suited to each character. Marios Aristopoulos' sound design makes its biggest impression in "Pine Cone Moment," in which a number of cuts from the film of The Sound of Music provide the soundtrack to Harry and Emma's romance. Of this year's Summer Shorts, Series A is more satisfying, but this one has its moments; in any case, it continues to be a pleasant summer ritual.--David Barbour 
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