To the best of my knowledge, Corey Rieger, better known in Pittsburgh alternative theater as an actor, director and co-artistic director of the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, has to date staged just two one-act plays of his own writing.
That alone makes "Stain," his ambitious three-act play now running at PPTCO (who writes three-acts plays these days?), a remarkable achievement. It's lumpy, showing Rieger's background in writing sketch comedy. Passages of inspired dark farce slow down for exposition and momentum can be sacrificed to lengthy conversations of tangential relevance.
But Rieger's dark comic instincts are intriguing. He actually makes us laugh. And his two-person encounters feel like real people talking. Maybe "promising" sounds like one of those faint-praise labels, but it seems to me precisely appropriate: "Stain" is a very promising playwriting debut.
The title serves a useful function of double entendre. It has a gothic sound, as though this were a tragedy of primal sin (think Hawthorne or Faulkner). That dark implication helps to set up (by contrast) the comedy of the family squabble, but for a long time you half expect the story to take a lurch toward the lurid.
In the end, we see that the title refers to an embarrassing physical stain that is more comic than dark, but that's well after it's had its darker effect. Some gothic tone lingers; there is hereditary dysfunction in this family, even though it turns out to have comic results.
The setting is the knotty-pine farmhouse of rumpled patriarch Ed Adams, decorated with lumpy furniture, a mounted fish and antlers (did I imagine the antlers?), kitschy nature scenes and a "Last Supper" that might as well be painted on velvet.
Ed's life is in disarray and his relations with his two grown sons, Charlie and Burt, are none too good. His 87-year-old farmer father has just died in suspicious circumstances and there's a missing teenage girl and an inquisitive (if incompetent) police detective making inquiries. Pour in a few cases of beer, borrow a backhoe and complications ensue.
Meanwhile, people have a way of standing around talking -- that lumpishness I mentioned. But except that the plot's on hold, we're content to hear them talk, because they argue entertainingly about family and this and that and whatever. The talk about sex and suicide in the opening scene between Ed and Charlie becomes thematically relevant later. There's a good argument about Ed between the brothers. I can't find any relevance in a later riff on family feuds, though, which really does slow down the story just as it comes to a boil.
The second scene ups the action ante, with Burt furious that no one thought to tell him about grandpa's funeral and the introduction of lanky, laconic uncle Jerome and gnomish neighbor Allan. The lady detective arrives and spills some beans any watcher of TV cop shows knows she shouldn't, and Rieger makes good hay out of the partial information that different people have -- leaving a few loose ends, however, such as who knows about teenage Tracy's parentage.
Come to think of it, Rieger probably writes three acts (and scenes within acts) because he has a refreshing fondness for good curtain lines, the kind that keep you coming back for more. Still, the play could benefit from pruning.
J.P. Patrick has a bearish warmth as Ed, sort of a John Wayne quality. Everett Lowe shows fine deadpan comic chops as Burt, and Jay Keenan makes the most of neighbor Allan's eccentric rant in his nightclothes. Jeffrey Simpson's Charlie seems burdened with authorial attitudes that don't necessarily add up to a character. Marcus Muzopappa, Michelle LeWay and Stephanie Figer round out the cast.
Director Mark Clayton Southers arranges several scenes where a bunch of people sit in pretty much a straight line while one walks about. A more interesting ground plan would help diversify this static quality. But Southers shares the credit for largely naturalistic, unforced acting.
Rieger could do more to set the scene. We need to know more about these people sooner, the better to enjoy what they have to say. And he is dependent on a clerk at the police station who keeps phoning in fresh information to stir the plot.
But there is a plot to stir, interesting characters and funny situations (extending to active physical stuff). Sometimes one goes to a new play with a sense of duty, but here, duty is rewarded.
ON THE STAGE LOOKING AHEAD
"Stain" is the final production in the 2005 season of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, which has just announced an ambitious slate of plays for 2006.
The company takes justified pride in having carved a home out of the unlikely mezzanine space in the Jackman Building at 542 Penn Ave., under the parking garage, above the Subway shop. A rabbit warren has been turned into a compact 100-seat theater with lobby, rehearsal, workshop and storage areas -- all rough and ready, usually bustling with activity.
The space comes courtesy of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Pittsburgh Playwrights is continuing to improve it; contributions are needed. But this isn't a company that sits around waiting for help. Under the leadership of Mark Clayton Southers, it sets itself ambitious goals, roles up its sleeves and does the work.
That chief work, aside from producing lots of plays, is racial inclusiveness. Starting out as a primarily black theater, it has welcomed white participation, making collaboration its cornerstone, as in its signature Theatre Festival in Black & White, where whites direct black plays and vice versa.
So the company is far from color blind -- rather the reverse. But magically, in enforcing black and white collaboration and putting the focus on the work at hand, the differences between black and white shrink. That Southers and Corey Rieger are black and white is far less important than their continued collaboration, together building an active theater company and a new tradition.
PPTCO 2006 season
February: Wali Jamal, "Legend of a Black Mariner," directed by J.P. Patrick.
Feb. 15: "August in February," an August Wilson celebration co-produced by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
March: Judy Meiksin, "March," directed by Eileen Morris.
May: Mark Clayton Southers, "Hoodwinked," directed by Wali Jamal.
June: Third annual Pittsburgh Pride Festival (eight one-act plays).
July: Brendon Bates, "Corps Value," directed by Art Terry.
August-September: August Wilson, "The Piano Lesson," directed by Southers.
October: Fourth annual Theatre Festival in Black & White (10 one-act plays).
November: Adrienne Kennedy, "Ohio State Murders," directed by Linda Haston.
For subscription information, call 412-288-0358; season passes, available until Dec. 31 for $99, include the six mainstage shows and two festivals ("August in February" is extra). To contribute to the continuing refurbishment of the theater, call Southers at 412-583-8762. 'Stain'
Where: Pittsburgh Playwright's Theatre Company, 542 Penn Ave., Downtown.
When: Through Dec. 10; Thurs.-Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 and 8 p.m.
Tickets: $10-$17.50; 412-288-0358.
First Published: December 1, 2005, 5:00 a.m.
