Playwright Richard Greenberg has written at least a half dozen plays including the award winning Take Me Out, Bal Masque which premiered at Theater J and The Violet Hour which was previously produced here by 1st Stage. They are generally erudite pieces, aimed at those wanted to be teased about how smart and knowledgeable they are. Three Days of Rain is in that mold. The play was commissioned and originally produced by South Coast Repertory in 1997 and premiered in New York the same year at the Manhattan Theatre Club. A 2006 revival ran for a total of 70 performances. It met with some poor reviews even with the star power of Julia Roberts. Director Dawn McAndrews has spent two decades working in theater including the Shakespeare Theatre Company. She is currently the Festival Director at VSA arts at the Kennedy Center, producing its 2010 International VSA arts Festival. In program notes, McAndrews indicated that Three Day of Rain is not “a play about getting wet and cold; the rain (like the fire at the end of act one) is the spark that changes everything.” She has accomplished a very affectionate, if not tactile rendering with an ensemble that conveys the complexity of Greenberg’s ambling about thinking.

The ensemble includes Lucas Beck as a character who is temperamental, irritating and unstable in Act I. He delivers lines with an emphasis on the adjectives to make a point. His physically splayed fingers also are used to exaggerate comments. Beck gets the swell lines describing his mother as “Zelda Fitzgerald’s less stable sister” or correcting his sister when she mentions Kitty Carlisle, quickly adding “Hart” in a cadence like the dash between her maiden name Carlisle and her married name Hart. Come Act II Beck is now a quiet man with a stutter who has to make his few words count. He succeeds. Belen Pifel has the task of being a reserved receiver of information in Act I and then a smart-aleck, southern vixen-like woman in Act II. She settles into both characters convincingly. She is adept in the way she holds her body naturally in reaction to others; paying close attention to each word coming her way with her body language. Near the end of Act II, with her hair damp, little or no make-up and wrapped in a robe hiding a full slip, the light seems to caress her face with great tenderness and she relaxes into it. Pifel is no longer young, not yet old, but you would want to know her. The light gives her face a warm hug belying that in the previous act we had learned that she is mentally unstable. Brian Razzino is the straight arrow, a decent man putting up with the unstable nature of Beck in Act I. He is the rescuer whenever Beck’s pain affects others. Yet he has a jumpy nature like a man on too much caffeine that he tries unsuccessfully to keep under wraps. In Act II he comes full circle becoming the unstable, creative one who hates his own failings. Here his nervous insides spill out; always in motion, unable to be still for moment.

1^st Stage once again provides a visually stimulating technical design. A sort of three-quarter, cut away of an apartment combining unfinished architectural blueprint designs that meld into the actual three dimensional rendition. In Act I one can almost feel the dust and emptiness, while the same space with different lighting and leather furniture becomes energized. The overall lighting design is teeming with little moody touches. The dark and glum of the outside is made visible through nicely accomplished rain sound effects that leak softly as an under current into the apartment, while the same rain when a character is “outside” is loud and almost overwhelms communications as it would in real life. Scene changes use jazzy musical interludes. The costumes fit the characters well.

Playwright Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688–1763) wrote his The Game of Love and Chance in an almost “Commedia dell’arte” style. It must have seemed a rollicking script so many years ago, and oh so fashionable to tease the foibles of rich classes. It could have been so dated and only a museum piece. Thankfully, translator and adapter Stephen Wadsworth has produced some most contemporary lines with heft and bite to them. The quirks of human nature and the fears of some of becoming no longer single but married have a pleasant, gentle press of an elbow into ribs charm. It is more harmless than hurtful, more decent chiding than fiery polemic. What emerges from director Mark Krikstan is a manic little cupcake of a production. The production and its cast cannot sustain itself as witty and screwball forever. Sometimes there is a feeling of "trying too hard” to be spirited. Krikstan’s hand with frenetic daffiness is more confident; then again there is nothing more difficult than standing front and center to deliver lines and learning to use little movements to add the necessary color and emotion. His charges are either 1^st Stage stalwarts or new to the professional ranks.

The cast’s two big-gestured comedians carry the production much of the way. Chemistry between Lucas Beck and Nevie Brooks as two servants masquerading as affluent family scions is terrific as they spring about with feisty liveliness. Brooks, in her first professional role, accomplishes voice work that at times is a high soprano wail as she falls into joyful giggles, while physically bouncing up and down on her heels. Beck is an instinctual howl, willing to do almost anything for a laugh. His pratfalls, overall physical work and timing of line delivery fit into the mold of a cartoon; a loved cartoon. Jacob Yeh, as the rich suitor, is reserved and reticent at the top of the show in keeping with his role as the hidden well-to-do suitor seeking to size-up the woman he is expected to marry. He does, at times, seem to fade away against the high energy of others even when trying to be muscular. Newcomer Beth Rothschild, the hard-to-please prosperous daughter, is all calculation and detachment with lines such as I am “not talking to your heart, but talking to you.” Over the course of the evening she becomes more vibrant. David Winkler as Rothschild’s brother generally gets by with a wink and nod. He provides the trajectory to the production through his words and the selections he plays on a grand piano. His piano work adds the underlying “score” to the production, both foretelling and truth telling in the snippets of the lyrics he sings.

The set design is a simple layout; appearing almost Marx Brothers formal. Soon enough, multiple doors are being used to provide absurd action points as the cast bounds about. Set design includes a pair of well placed painted dice with opposite faces of the dice shown to total seven. There is also set space at the rear to allow for the usual tip-toeing comic style as well as peek-a-boo maneuvers. Clear winners of the technical design are the costumes with florid bright red outfits of for one couple, rich scarlet brocade for her and shiny crimson for him -- not only a visual laugh, but perhaps matching the notion of “Big Red” on a craps table marking “7.” Musical selections such as “What Is This Thing Called Love” are well placed.

Playwright Joe Calarco is well known to the Potomac Stages area. He is currently Artistic Associate at Signature Theatre. At Signature he has directed numerous productions with a number of Helen Hayes Awards and nominations. He directed the R&J production in New York, which ran for a year and received a Lucille Lortel Award. The first Potomac Stages presentation of his Shakespeare’s R & J at Folger Theatre received Helen Hayes Award nominations for Best Play and Best Director for Calarco. Perhaps it is the passage of a decade; perhaps it is the zeitgeist of America today, but the play’s premise, while immensely appealing, does not burn with the fire of a decade ago. Mark Krikstan has directed other productions at 1^st stage including The Violet Hour. His newcomer casting is appealing, the four actors are likeable as they take on the difficulties of Shakespearian rhythms while maintaining a semblance of “just” being boys out on a lark. Reading the program notes about the work of his technical crew constructing the bramble bamboo set design is not to be missed. His notes also speak of the “newly minted” actors and all the risks they have taken; like a coach giving a nice pat to the team.

The overall acting of the ensemble is earnest, energetic and unapologetically animated. They know their lines, making their marks without a hint of fear or trepidation, but with experience will come more levels of expression. The full cast works very hard to invigorate 16 different characters. Finding individuality for each of the multiple roles is no easy task, but each has a more prominent role for which they do present a recognizable individuality. Alex Mandell is up for the part of Romeo, beginning with his handsome dark looks that radiate a caring sensuality. His work with Yeh in the romantic scenes we all remember from reading Romeo and Juliet takes on a  complex sensuality. Lines spoken between them within the thicket of the bamboo forest about love being blind or love being rough and rude are a high point of the production. Jonathan Elliott, as Mercutio, is all loud bluster, while, as Friar Lawrence, he is a bit gentler and pensive in tone. Aeneas Hemphill is the geeky one the others gravitate to as their punching bag. As Nurse he seems to ham it up, pulling his top out with his hands to represent breasts along with a high-pitched squeal, while as Tybalt, he is all macho.

The 1^st  Stage technical team beyond the set builders are also up to the task. The lighting design includes an ever present moon that can morph into the sun. Beyond the daylight and nightlight work, spotlights are used effectively as the foursome move about. Flashlights are used as props as they often are in all those CSI television shows, as objects to light the way to evidence. The costumes are preppy wear, including sports coats and ties.

Michael Hollinger (b 1962) received a degree in Music and his Red Herring displays his musical talents in the cadence of the wise-cracking dialogue and the dynamics of the overall trajectory of this story that spins like a top. The script takes his characters through Boston, including various apartment buildings, police stations and even the explosion of the H-Bomb somewhere in the South Pacific. He has been honored by the American Theatre Critics Association and has received the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays. Hollinger is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and Assistant professor of Theatre at Villanova University.  Director Jessica Lefkow has made enormous creative impact by speeding the script along into a fast-paced, well constructed production. There is nothing static from the moment the pre-show music begins. Her technical artisans have built a set that matches the word play as set pieces move about as if part of a musical fugue. She most recently directed the world premiere of Honey Brown Eyes which received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play.

Anna Brungardt, as the buttoned-up workaholic Boston police woman with a straight-laced demeanor, is as seemingly square as the shoes she wears until an unexpected death is explained, and either lust or love overtakes her. Amy Waldman, the most experienced of the ensemble, inhabits her various distinct roles as the more mature women in this production. Whether mistress to one man she wants to marry, or "The Mistress" to another man to whom she is married, she offers up flair and pop to her words and her body. With her fair complexion and blond mane, Katie Foster is a sunny presence who nicely tosses off lines that belie her visual innocence. Jon Jon Johnson is a hoot when allowed to deadpan as a hand tossing mute who speaks by semaphore signaling or as a submissive, overly fastidious spineless, mincing husband.

The 1^st Stage technical artisans have constructed a set that abundantly overflows with any number of wooden packing crates set upon the floor and each other. It looks at first as a muddle, but one soon learns that nothing is arbitrary. All have unexpected uses - well, all but a chandelier hanging within one open crate. Soon enough the crates come alive as they are opened, closed, and moved about to create discrete set spaces and a waterfront location. It is a piece of quite lovely whimsy, nicely woven together as beds and desks appear, even a morgue and a waterfront pier. Original jazz accompaniment reinforces set changes accomplished by two stage hands (Kate Karczewski and Conor Dinan) who become silent members of the cast. Costumes are evocative giving each character a sense of themselves that carries through the evening especially for the three women. Pre-show music reminds us of the lilting voice of Rosemary Clooney and many pop standards by girl groups of the early 1950’s.

Richard Greenberg is a playwright known to Potomac area audiences. His Bal Masque was produced by Theatre J within the past year and his multiple award winning (including the Tony) Take Me Out received its DC premiere from Studio. He is an associate artist of South Coast Repertory and The Violet Hour was commissioned and produced by South Coast opening in November 2002 in Costa Mesa, California. The production found its way to New York’s Manhattan Theatre Club in November 2003 running for 54 performances. The script is thick with efforts to mystify into unpredictability. It is also full of theater-related references that start at the top of the show when comments are made about the “utterly” predictable nature of theater. Greenberg spends the next 77 pages of the script trying to confound the audience, ending the script with the same words as he began it; but with an added bon mot, that while a particular show may be predictable, “we’ll enjoy it anyway, won’t we? We’ll find a way.”  Director Mark Krikstan’s program notes describe the various levels he found in The Violet Hour including a sense of Rod Serling and Samuel Beckett along “with special affects.”  Kirkstan’s direction is clear and focused. His cast breaths life and interest into what could have been a rather serious (read “high-brow”) dissertation about the American culture of the Lost Generation and their years beyond, but Kirkstan has made this a show not just for the supposed intelligentsia. His design team’s work with animating a machine to becoming an integral cast member is a consummated hoot.

1^st Stage was founded to provide “young emerging talents” a first professional opportunity. The caliber of the ensemble for The Violet Hour speaks well for the theater’s mission and its ability to attract high-quality actors. They are an ensemble squarely up for this very complex work in a production that requires nuances of presentation both verbal and physical. Some of the actors are more accomplished, including David Winkler as the central character, John Pace Seavering. Winkler is well suited in his acting repertoire of mannerisms and text delivery to portray a 20-something Ivy League graduate opening his first business as a book publisher, but without a clue as to his next steps. Jessica Aimone’s work as the paramour to Winkler’s possibly gay lover and best friend (Daniel Chestnut) is nicely paced. She is able to present different styles of giggles and laughter in ways that replace speech and yet give the audience a sense of how such lovely gestures can become old and wearing in the life of a marriage. Natalie Tucker has a somewhat haughty coolness about herself that fits her role as a 40 to 50 something woman of apparent but possibly not African-American roots.

The set design is simply eye-catching for a theater company so new. The design ideas are very well executed and the little architectural details are striking. Costumes are completely of the times down to the two-tone shoes of the men, and the bright high necked dresses and hats for the women. The lighting is most appealing when it evokes the twilight hours. But, know that you will have come to the space by way of body shops and other small scale stores in a 2 story warehouse-type venue. Now, before you run for cover and don’t make this theater visit, do please remember 14^th street and H Street not so long ago.