| ‘Loose Knit’ delivers ‘tangy treat’
SNAP! Productions serves up some adult humor with solid acting and witty dialogue.
BY BOB FISCHBACH
OMAHA WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
It’s a fairly irresistible combination: an author who writes witty dialogue for interesting characters, and a cast full of strong character actors.
SNAP! Productions’ reprise of “Loose Knit,” by Theresa Rebeck, delivers a solid two hours of adult comedy with vinegar at all the edges, and it’s a tangy treat. A group of Manhattan professional women who knit to escape the pressures of contemporary urban life instead see their little group turn into a pressure cooker, thanks in good measure to two badly behaved men.
Not that the women don’t have their issues, too.
Liz (Chelsea Long), a celebrity beat reporter who despises her shallow job, is having an affair with failed academic Bob (Matt Allen), the husband of Liz’s sister, Lily (Laura Leininger). Lily, who’s all about order, is an expert at ignoring what she doesn’t want to deal with.
Margie (Ashley Spessard), a neurotic actress starved for romance, seems to be dropping stitches all over her life. And she can’t stop talking.
Gina (Shannon Jaxies), a bitter and often silent lawyer, is a knitting machine, com pulsively focused and bugging everybody else to stop talking so much and keep those needles clicking. She’s hiding something.
Paula (Emily J. Thompson), a therapist and the only person of color in the group, serves as the voice of reason and calm, muffling some fairly wild mood swings in the room but sneaking in a zinger of her own every now and then.
Between knitting sessions, three of the women go out on successive dates. In the same expensive Japanese restaurant. With the same man. Miles (David Mainelli), a fabulously wealthy mergers and acquisitions expert, proves to be a patronizing, arrogant elitist.
More than insensitive, even unkind, Miles takes notes on each of his dates while the dates are going on. The women’s reactions to his cross-examining aggression contrast sharply, but they’re all pretty hilarious.
The play simultaneously explores relationships while offering a running commentary on the American cultural zeitgeist. Rebeck pokes at contemporary issues such as the gap between haves and have-nots, extreme capitalism, race, job pressures, layoffs, political cronyism, celebrity worship and so much more. Though written in the early 1990s, it has lost none of its relevance or its sting.
And it’s very, very funny.
Director M. Michele Phillips’ show opened Thursday with much the same cast as the one night- only version at last year’s Great Plains Theatre Conference, when Rebeck was here to see it. That helped a Wednesday preview feel like pretty seamless ensemble work, well-paced and finely staged.
Though all the acting is solid (strong comedic timing, sharp nonverbals), individual approaches varied widely. That’s due in part to the characters being played. Spessard’s take on twitchy Margie felt big for the intimate performance space, while Thompson’s restrained Paula was a marvel of subtlety. Mainelli is highly credible as manipulative Miles. A personal favorite: Long as outspoken, profane Liz, who doesn’t like herself any more than she can stop her self.
Expect a fair amount of swearing (the play starts with an F bomb) and some frank sex talk, which isn’t a high price to pay for the insight and entertainment “Loose Knit” offers. Though it feels like a long unraveling, these interesting people don’t untangle all that easily.
Contact the writer:
444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com
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