Review: 'Shooting Star' is a sometimes funny look at life's unfinished business
Anyone who has done a fair amount of living no doubt has a couple of past relationships dangling out there with unfinished business.
Whether they're romances gone awry or simply friendships that have unraveled, it's only natural to wonder if time, maturity or the opportunity to express the words left unspoken could allow us to set things right.
Playwright Steven Dietz offers Reed McAllister and Elena Carson that opportunity in "Shooting Star," which opened Friday at City Theatre on the South Side.
The passenger waiting area of an airport that's socked in by a major snowstorm becomes the setting for a chance encounter between McAllister and Carson, who haven't communicated since their 22-month relationship ended in the mid-1970s.
What should have been a quick transfer stop becomes an overnight purgatory that provides them with an inescapable, seemingly endless interlude that forces them to confront not only their unfinished business with each other but the dreams they abandoned and their present realities.
Played in 90 minutes with no intermission, Dietz's play does a good job of showing the slow passage of time as the former couple meet, chat and reminisce with polite distance as they await the rescue of a departing flight.
It's often funny as they tease each other about their former and present selves.
She hasn't abandoned her counter-culture lifestyle. He has succumbed to a middle-management position that doesn't quite fit his more-conservative nature.
Clearly, they have regrets and issues they want to explore.
But, Dietz never makes it clear why neither of them take advantage of the multiple opportunities he gives them to escape before they confront the demons of their past and present.
There's also some moments of cuteness and behavior that advance the action without ringing true.
Nevertheless, for the most part, both Laurie Klatscher and Andrew May represent their characters with reality and believability. These are people whose lives have not turned out as they had imagined. They've learned to roll with the inevitable compromises and disappointments.
Ultimately, these stalled travelers find a bittersweet resolution that moves them on toward their destinations both geographical and emotional.
Director Tracy Brigden handles the necessarily uncomfortable interludes and silences that accompany the action with precision and empathy. She and the actors also make sure that narrative passages where characters speak directly to the audience feel natural.
Scenic designer Tony Ferrieri provides the perfect setting -- the ironic departure lounge that the characters find themselves trapped in. Anyone who has ever spent a prolonged period in limbo at Pittsburgh International Airport will recognize the location as simultaneously generic and instantly recognizable.
Additional Information:
'Shooting Star'
Produced by: City Theatre Company
When: Through May 16 with performances at 7 p.m. Tuesdays; 8 p.m. Wednesdays- Fridays; 5:30 and 9 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, plus some additional shows
Where: Lester Hamburg Studio Theatre at City Theatre, 1300 Bingham St., South Side.
Admission: $23-$48; discount tickets available for those 25 and younger and 60 and older
Details: 412-431-2489 or www.CityTheatreCompany.org
