Callie Stribling reviews Faces and Romance With Orion

Faces and Romance With Orion make for an interesting pairing for an evening at the American Theatre of Actors.

Faces, written by D. S. Burrows, is a short little comedy about some truly awful people. The short 10-15 minute piece shows a meeting between Frank (Jason Duval Hunter) and his boss Darla (Karolina Larion). They bicker about Frank’s absurd and shallow reason for leaving the firm and Darla’s rather questionable hiring methods and in general make a very comedic, ridiculous, and strongly compelling case for an HR rep. Hunter and Larion are hilarious, Burrows’ script is full of laughs, and Art Bernal’s direction ties it all together beautifully.

In contrast, Romance With Orion is a full one act. Written and directed by James Jennings, the show does have comedic moments – but it’s more a family drama than anything. It hits a different tone than Faces does, telling the story of Lawrence (Thomas Crouch), an old man who in his younger days went on all kinds of expeditions. Now, he’s being pestered by his son Frances (James Rowe) and daughter in law Nelle (Sophia Rosetti) about his will, despite his insistence he doesn’t have much to leave. It’s a pretty messed up family dynamic; Frances doesn’t seem to be able to stand his ground against anyone, Nelle is horrible not just to Lawrence but to her daughter, Carol (Anna Medley), as well. And Lawrence himself, apart from facing the realities of growing older and the stop that has had to put on his adventures and travels around the world, is facing resentment from being rather caught up in his own adventures as opposed to paying as much attention as he should have to his family.

The heart of the piece I found was in the relationship between Lawrence and Carol, and Crouch and Medley both give incredible performances. The relationship between them was so warm and caring. Crouch really steals the show, though – his portrayal of Lawrence was playful and fun, but also showed raw vulnerability. While there are a few things I would have liked to have seen tied together a bit more neatly, Jennings’ script did some great character work for a fantastic cast to build off of. His direction, too, gave great shape to the piece.

Overall, the only real issue I had was fitting these two well-acted and well-directed pieces together. Not only were they two short plays without much similarity, but changing the set necessitated a 6-minute intermission between the two. It felt a bit jarring after only 10 or 15 minutes. Despite being billed and shown together, there didn’t seem to be much to connect the two shows together.

That aside, they were two highly enjoyable and well put together pieces. For a hour run time total, it was an engaging evening. Short and sweet, but absolutely entertaining.