Daniel Productions offers us “2x2x2” at the Players’ Ring: two plays (“A Number” and “The Zoo Story”) by two playwrights (Caryl Churchill and Edward Albee) for two actors (Alan Huisman and Chris Curtis).
 
We start with “A Number.” The writing is fascinating—the play itself seems to be one long run-on sentence, as one character picks up or interrupts the other’s words. The story is that of a man, Salter (Huisman), who, after the suicide of his wife and after years of a drunken blur, clones his son Bernard (Curtis), so he’ll have the perfect child he remembers as a baby. The 4-year-old that he’s messed up with his addictions, he gives away to the state.

Now, the original child Bernard (Curtis as well) has come back from wherever Human Services dropped him, he’s all grown up, and he’s pissed. Plus, the clone has discovered that the hospital made many clones, and they’re all just walking around, living their lives. Salter, thinking with his bank account, wants to sue the hospital for “damaging his son’s uniqueness.” This play is a statement about disposability and lack of sentimentality present in our culture, when every tragedy can also lead you to a pot of money.

“The Zoo Story” is a little easier to follow. Peter (Alan Huisman), a well-to-do publishing exec and family man, is reading on a bench in Central Park as he does every Sunday. Jerry (Curtis) is a guy with no job and no family who comes walking along and engages Peter in a conversation about the Zoo, which digresses to a (mostly) pleasant conversation. Suddenly, things turn ugly when Jerry insists that the bench belongs to him; Peter decides it’s equally his, and he’s going to fight for it. It’s a satire of the haves and have-nots; when the fight turns bloody, we find out that the loser is actually the victor, after all, and the winner, though escaping with his life, lost something equally important.

In both cases, I felt both of the talented actors needed a strong hand guiding them through the difficult story arcs. But instead, the emphasis seems to be on individual moments of the script.

In “A Number,” while the greed and desperation of Salter (Huisman) comes through, some of his behavior doesn’t make sense. For example, upon being told of the death of his son, he doesn’t seem to be as emotionally upset as he is intellectually curious. And while impressively carving out three different characters seemingly on a dime, Bernard the First (Curtis), didn’t seem to be nearly as dark and scary as the text described him to be, so, but for a costume change, he seemed not terribly different than his clone. Since the differentiation was crucial to the script, this was a problem.

In “The Zoo Story,” I had a hard time making the initial jump—I really wasn’t sure why Peter would talk to this iffy guy Jerry in the first place, let alone converse with him at length. I felt that Jerry needed to reel in Peter slowly, at first convincing him he’s just a guy; rather, Jerry seemed like someone I’d pass quickly on the street. When the fight erupts, it’s hard to understand why Peter doesn’t just flee, especially when the knife comes out. Partly the answer is that “the text says so,” but the direction should help the character explain it to the audience through their choices. Instead, both times, there was confusion as to the characters’ behavior. Director Liz Korabek certainly has a vision for the characters, but things could point more toward a story arc and its conclusion. In the end, the tales are compelling, but the audience is still left wondering. 

“2x2x2”
(“A Number” and “The Zoo Story”)
Players’ Ring, 105 Marcy St. Portsmouth
through March 12, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $12 and $10
For reservations, call 603-436-8123.