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It's later than you think

Schulner's "Infinite Ache' at Theatre Horizon

In
2 minute read
Ngo (left) and Stanton-Ameisen: Lighting trumps story.
Ngo (left) and Stanton-Ameisen: Lighting trumps story.
A man and a woman are alone in a room. The man speaks and turns away, the woman responds, and when the man turns back the lighting is different and we realize that time has passed. Characters change their attire in seconds. Even their postures change, indicating that years have passed in a blink of an eye. No blackouts or music cues show the change of time— only the intensity or the direction of the light.

In this dazzlingly subtle and creative fashion, David Schulner's An Infinite Ache speeds us through the lives of a man and woman from their first date to their old age in 90 minutes. Perhaps intentionally, their story seems subservient to the mechanics of the story telling.

After all, the guy seems to be an everyman with an unexceptional background and aspirations, and Griffin Stanton-Ameisen portrays him with maladroit ordinariness. The woman (Bi Jean Ngo) does possess one distinguishing characteristic: She is Asian-American and, consequently, a useful vehicle with which to illustrate the guy's awkwardness.

He asks where she's from; she replies, "Los Angeles." Stammering, he then asks where her parents are from. "San Francisco." He presses on: "What I mean is, you are... what?" And she completes the sentence: "Californian."

What about their parents?

Eventually she reveals that her background is Chinese and Filipino. Yet she knows the Yiddish word bashert (fate) and she believes that's what brought them together. He is white and Jewish and, later on, he will say that he wants their child to be raised Jewish because the baby will look like his mother and some characteristic of the father should be passed along.

Aside from that exchange, not enough is made of their ethnic and cultural differences. We can only imagine the reactions of the parents on both sides. (Remember, their meeting occurred a half-century ago, when interracial marriages were anathema.)

Their lives unfold with subtlety and pathos, as when one of them is on stage alone in the bedroom, talking on the phone to the other when we hear the sound of a toilet flushing in the next room, revealing a sexual affair.

Maturing personalities

How will this relationship— not to mention their respective lives— end? Suffice it to say that the surprise twist in the script is gratifying.

Ngo and Stanton-Ameisen are superb in the differentiations they use to show the elapsing of time and their maturing personalities, and director Megan Nicole O'Brien has done a masterful job of orchestrating such details as the twisting of a baby blanket and the quick changes in wardrobe.

Dominic Chacon's multifaceted lighting is a vital element in the production.





What, When, Where

An Infinite Ache. By David Schulner; Megan Nicole O’Brien directed. Through February 17, 2013 at Theatre Horizon, 401 DeKalb St., Norristown, Pa. (610) 283-2230 or theatrehorizon.org.

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