{"id":4425,"date":"2015-05-22T06:53:57","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T10:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4425"},"modified":"2017-12-04T08:14:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T13:14:35","slug":"five-mile-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4425","title":{"rendered":"Five Mile Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"lake,

(photo: Greg Seitz, Creative Commons license)<\/p><\/div>\n

McCarter Theatre\u2019s final production of the season, Rachel Bonds\u2019s new play, Five Mile Lake<\/em>, explores the differences and similarities between two pairs of young people. Brother Rufus makes a surprise visit to the \u201csmall, somewhat desolate town near Scranton,\u201d bringing his Manhattan girlfriend (Peta) with him. His brother Jamie works in a coffee-and-muffin shop and talks about hockey to his co-worker Mary, whom he is obviously desperate to talk love to. The small town and the lake and the old house he\u2019s fixing up are his world, but Mary just wants to get away. All of them, on the cusp of full adulthood, are settling into their lives, and, looking at what\u2019s ahead, they\u2019re filled with satisfaction or horror.<\/p>\n

As in life, everything is not as it seems. The brother who \u201cgot out\u201d is facing an abyss of failure on all fronts. His supposedly successful girlfriend also feels the loss of possibilities. The young coffee shop worker who wants to leave believes she\u2019s held back by her brother, but her own shrinking ambitions hem her in. All the characters except Peta have known each other essentially all their lives, and the dynamics among them spring in many directions.<\/p>\n

Bonds\u2019s dialog is modern and witty and totally believable. Totally. It\u2019s delivered with precision and heart by a super cast. Kristen Bush, who was outstanding in McCarter\u2019s recent production of Proof<\/em>, is Mary; Tobias Segal is a moving Jamie, saying much with every body posture\u2014the polar opposite of the constrained Octavius Caesar he portrayed in McCarter\u2019s season-opener, Antony and Cleopatra<\/em>. Nathan Darrow\u2019s Rufus breezes in from the big city reeking of success that soon becomes the stink of something else. Mahira Kakkar is the girlfriend, desperate to talk about her real situation, and finally, Jason Babinsky is Mary\u2019s PTSD-afflicted brother Danny, manic and wheedling. On stage until May 31. Watch for this play in your area\u201490 minutes of excellent drama.<\/p>\n

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