Secret affair sizzles in ‘Night’

Tom Titus

Old habits die hard. So do old love affairs. In Michael Weller’s

“What the Night is For,” two former lovers -- both, then as now,

married -- connect again after a 10-year hiatus to find out if that

old flame is still warm.

This first American production of Weller’s two-

character comedic drama, now on stage at the Laguna Playhouse, is

an engrossing look into two diverse personalities whose only

commonality, it seems, is their hots for each other. Weller paces

their first meeting in a decade with a taunting “will they or won’t

they” attitude, but when the only pieces of furniture onstage are a

dining table and a bed, we all know what’s for dessert.

Director Richard Stein has tempered this two-character production

with a number of variables, the most important being the once and

future lovers’ tempo regarding their reunion -- and whether to treat

it with a “Same Time, Next Year” regularity or go the whole nine

yards and shed their spouses and family life (she has two children,

he has one).

Stein also has selected an excellent pair of actors to play out

this indiscreet love story. Claudia Christian is breathtakingly

magnificent as a frustrated poet whose dialogue drips with irony and

Kip Gilman is superbly stalwart as a guy who lays his heart on the

table -- or, in this case, that other piece of furniture.

Christian delivers several characterizations in her complicated

performance. In the opening scene, she is hesitant, even coquettish,

and it’s clear that playwright Weller is writing through her

character. Not that she’s incapable of cutting to the chase -- as the

first scene closes, she delivers the best line in the show: “I came

here to get laid.”

Gilman projects a strength and sincerity which may seem unusual

for someone in his circumstances, until he reveals that he’s been

searching for her ever since their first encounter ended. This

singleness of purpose brings Christian’s admission that her character

also has been on the lookout for him.

The second act brings a change in the atmosphere -- particularly

in Christian’s character as her vulnerability and desperation are

brought to the fore. Christian excels at this difficult bit of

business in a sequence that’s in turn achingly funny and profoundly

painful.

There’s a third character on stage in the form of Christian’s cell

phone, which rings at the most inopportune moments. This intrusion

from the outside world is an ever-present circumstance with which

both parties must deal, however delicately.

As the affair intensifies, the emotional stakes are raised and the

question of what’s to be done looms larger and larger. Weller offers

a plausible solution, though he doesn’t quite put an exclamation

point on it. Ultimately, the audience must draw its own conclusions.

The setting -- described as “a hotel room, somewhere” -- is richly

designed by Dwight Richard Odle and amplified by Tom Ruzika’s

lighting effects. The remnants of the characters’ past (such as a

bicycle hanging on a back flat, representing Christian’s husband’s

profession) are an inspired touch.

“What the Night is For” is for comedy, interlaced with razor-edge

drama, in this richly rewarding play about physical and emotional

need.