Frank Cossa’s two short one-acts, Cross Purposes and The Expert, give one excellent play and one very solid effort brought together by Ken Coughlin’s excellent direction and two extraordinary casts.

Cross Purposes is comedic drama exploring the same topics as Hannah Moscovitch’s The Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes. Only Cossa’s play embraces the humor of a delicate situation while Moscovitch explores the drama.  Moscovitch’s novelist/professor is replaced by Cossa’s Professor of Religion/Priest (Riyadh Rollins as Tom More).  Moscovitch’s perhaps naive, perhaps not 18 years old Annie, is replaced by the sexually demanding, but just as needy, 19 years old Tiffany (Camilla Valentina).  Annie’s quiet is replaced by Tiffany’s motormouth.  Both men recognize the inappropriateness of their actions with the young women left in their care.  But Cossa throw in the café waitress. Millie Burns (Amanda Cannon), a woman who seems to hate her job and delivers judgment on her customers. 

Rollins perfectly portrays the priest troubled by his actions and Valentia delivers Tiffany so expertly and so extremely that you wonder if she can do a less aggressive role that does not require emotional distance combined with vulnerability.  Cannon’s Millie Burns seems volatile waitress adds an unexpected element to the mix.

Cross Purposes is an extraordinary piece that should have a place in almost every short play festival.

Although not quite as good as Cross Purposes, The Expert brings absurdism to the Beekman Stage of ATA.  Riyadh Rollins becomes the self-absorbed, oblivious husband (Jack Clayburn) and Amanda Cannon takes the role of his manipulative wife (Helen Clayburn) in this comic romp.  Christian Miranda plays the Art Expert(?)/Lover(?) Diego Lucar in this piece that challenges both Jack Clayburns world and the audiences conclusions.