Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Boys and Girls at Diversionary Theatre

Andrew Oswald and Anthony Methvin in Boys and Girls. - Image by Ken Jaques
Andrew Oswald and Anthony Methvin in Boys and Girls.

Boys and Girls

Tom Donaghy’s comedy-drama asks: can people change? And will that change be for the better?

Boys and Girls (2002) puts a relatively new social phenomenon on stage: same-sex couples having children. In the process differences blend, and often give way, to similarities and important questions about parenthood in general.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Reed and Jason were lovers. They meet, after a messy breakup, and ponder getting back together. But the boundary-free Jason still drinks to excess and abhors notions of therapy. Can Jason change? Can he grow up?

Can Reed and Bev? After years of wild-childing, they tired of running red lights and opted for adulthood. Bev found a partner in Shelly. To outsiders, lockstep Shelly may seem severe — she loves to give orders — but to Bev she’s stability, both emotional and financial, and a co-parent for Bev’s young son.

Anthony Methvin, Chrissy Burns and Faeren Adams in Boys and Girls.

When the women want a father, even if only part-time, Reed’s the obvious choice. But Jason may come with him. And though they say that opposites can attract, Jason and Shelley are a severe exception to that rule.

The play has dramatic possibilities. The script, however, is more concerned with the themes than viable characters. It has lulls and sudden, soap operatic leaps. The playwright manipulates the quartet, like pawns, for confrontations and contrasts.

Donaghy has been praised for his David Mamet-like dialogue. But what looks like chaos on Mamet’s pages has acres of subtexts underneath. Donaghy’s dialogue has snippets of speech (and a fragile anxiety equal to Mamet), but subtexts are few. The characters exist to illustrate variations on a theme. How they grow and change plays third fiddle.

I wish the script were up to the efforts Diversionary Theatre has given it. Matt Scott’s set is one of the company’s most appealing in years. Soft greens, just the right amount of furniture, and a stairway – believable, even under a low ceiling — up to a second floor.

The design’s as functional as inventive. Luke Olson’s excellent lighting shapes the stage into discrete locales. And a hallmark touch: when actors exit through an upstage door, they freeze in a cone of light. The images button scenes with eloquent stillness.

The actors, under Shana Wride’s sensitive direction, do what they can. Faeren Adams gives Shelly believable emotions, but the character as written is a one-note case study in control issues. Jason, by obvious contrast, is a study in out-of-control issues, though Andrew Oswald hides most of the seams with a fluid performance.

The script gives Reed and Bev more emotional range, and Anthony Methvin and Chrissy Burns make good use of it in scene after scene. In yet another obvious contrast (to Jason, suddenly grown up) Reed shifts from caregiver to needy human being. Methvin does a nice job not only of tracing the downward path but suggesting that Reed just might retrace it once again.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?
Next Article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Andrew Oswald and Anthony Methvin in Boys and Girls. - Image by Ken Jaques
Andrew Oswald and Anthony Methvin in Boys and Girls.

Boys and Girls

Tom Donaghy’s comedy-drama asks: can people change? And will that change be for the better?

Boys and Girls (2002) puts a relatively new social phenomenon on stage: same-sex couples having children. In the process differences blend, and often give way, to similarities and important questions about parenthood in general.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Reed and Jason were lovers. They meet, after a messy breakup, and ponder getting back together. But the boundary-free Jason still drinks to excess and abhors notions of therapy. Can Jason change? Can he grow up?

Can Reed and Bev? After years of wild-childing, they tired of running red lights and opted for adulthood. Bev found a partner in Shelly. To outsiders, lockstep Shelly may seem severe — she loves to give orders — but to Bev she’s stability, both emotional and financial, and a co-parent for Bev’s young son.

Anthony Methvin, Chrissy Burns and Faeren Adams in Boys and Girls.

When the women want a father, even if only part-time, Reed’s the obvious choice. But Jason may come with him. And though they say that opposites can attract, Jason and Shelley are a severe exception to that rule.

The play has dramatic possibilities. The script, however, is more concerned with the themes than viable characters. It has lulls and sudden, soap operatic leaps. The playwright manipulates the quartet, like pawns, for confrontations and contrasts.

Donaghy has been praised for his David Mamet-like dialogue. But what looks like chaos on Mamet’s pages has acres of subtexts underneath. Donaghy’s dialogue has snippets of speech (and a fragile anxiety equal to Mamet), but subtexts are few. The characters exist to illustrate variations on a theme. How they grow and change plays third fiddle.

I wish the script were up to the efforts Diversionary Theatre has given it. Matt Scott’s set is one of the company’s most appealing in years. Soft greens, just the right amount of furniture, and a stairway – believable, even under a low ceiling — up to a second floor.

The design’s as functional as inventive. Luke Olson’s excellent lighting shapes the stage into discrete locales. And a hallmark touch: when actors exit through an upstage door, they freeze in a cone of light. The images button scenes with eloquent stillness.

The actors, under Shana Wride’s sensitive direction, do what they can. Faeren Adams gives Shelly believable emotions, but the character as written is a one-note case study in control issues. Jason, by obvious contrast, is a study in out-of-control issues, though Andrew Oswald hides most of the seams with a fluid performance.

The script gives Reed and Bev more emotional range, and Anthony Methvin and Chrissy Burns make good use of it in scene after scene. In yet another obvious contrast (to Jason, suddenly grown up) Reed shifts from caregiver to needy human being. Methvin does a nice job not only of tracing the downward path but suggesting that Reed just might retrace it once again.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.