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Heartful dodgers
The characters of "What It Is From What It Is Not" are looking for love in all the wrong places — so what is this thing called love that they've found there?
By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com
She sits next to him at a bar and casually informs him that she always lies to
attractive men in bars.
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| | | WHAT IT IS FROM WHAT IT IS NOT | Written by: Ann Marie Healy.
Directed by: Michelle Strier.
Cast: Preston Dyches, Christopher Logan Healy, Chris Petrelli, Hillary Redmon, Michelle Rowley, Sara Sommervold, Matt Wiens.
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She: "I told a man that all my former lovers had the same name: Maxwell Frank.
Can you believe that? Is that a funny coincidence? I would go so far as to say that I
am — what would the word be? — easy. I am easy! Or perhaps the word is —"
He: "— passionate?"
She: "But only with men named Maxwell Frank!"
And what do you know, this young lovely has met quite a few men who happen
to call themselves Maxwell Frank. In fact, the gentleman she's talking with
now just might be a Maxwell Frank himself. Heck, admit it — you'd call
yourself Maxwell Frank for a night too, wouldn't you?
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This is one of the slightly off-kilter vignettes that make up "What It Is From What It Is
Not," which bills itself as a "love fugue" but is actually a smart little
cruise through the twilight zone of almost-love. All of the characters are
on the precarious edge between falling in love and not falling in love,
or between staying in love and not staying in love.
A man listens to "stocks" on the radio and a woman doodles on her own knees
instead of talking about what's between them, all the while reassuring
each other that their love will last forever. Another pair search for the
poetic words that will ennoble their love but twist their own clumsy metaphors
beyond all recognition. A couple dance elegantly while adamantly
denying that they have any feelings for each other or anybody else. All is
passion plus aloofness.
These segments, breezy, cleverly written and jauntily acted, don't
explore the nature of love, exactly. Maybe what they really do is something
more serious than it seems: explore the different cues — like permanence,
purple poetry and passion — from which we try to recognize love when
we're not sure if we have it or not.
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MARCH 9, 2000
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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