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People We Know
Playwright Tenges’s previous work includes translations of Chekhov, and the Russian master’s influence suffuses this deceptively simple study of three couples, its mundane bedrooms and dinner parties the occasion for exposing the deepest emotions. In the wake of an accusation of sexual abuse that sends schoolteacher Paul (C. Sean Piereman) to jail, the scandal’s ramifications entangle not just his wife but also four of his close friends, as the cracks in their relationships emerge. Tenges could be faulted for setting up his conflicts a little too deliberately: The first half of the piece at times feels more like a seminar in dramatic structure than a full-fledged play. And the monologues and flashbacks sprinkled throughout the main scenes serve more to distract from the play’s action than to heighten it. But once the carefully devised traps begin to spring, People We Know delivers powerful, and often powerfully comic, insight into the resources and limitations of friendship and love.
Webster’s characteristically snappy production features a seasoned and sensitive cast. Andy Hager, who’s developing into one of the city’s premier comic actors, lends sad-sack Joshua—a modern-day record-store manager—a moving, steely dignity. He’s ably matched with Elizabeth Bagby, whose Hannah gleams with a wry intelligence on the edge of snapping. As Paul’s other friends, Kirsten D’Aurelio and Robert Koon switch deftly from a savagely funny sex scene, featuring college conductor Eric’s telling fantasies, to an argument that lays bare what the poet Denise Levertov called “the ache of marriage.”
