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| Eisen-Martin and Young in Douglas Lyons' new play. |
A talented cast trods over tired territory in the world premiere of Table 17, Douglas Lyons’ darker twist on Black romantic comedies. This 85-minute play with a cast of three, which kicks off MCC Theater’s new season, boasts an excellent cast, notably recent Tony winner Kara Young (Purlie Victorious), but ultimately, only the close friends and family of these characters will really be concerned about what happens to them.
In a program note the playwright encourages audience involvement. Characters like Young’s bouncy Jada not only talk to the audience, they ask for our feedback about matters ranging from what they’re wearing on a date to whether they said or did the right thing. The actor-audience connection is enhanced by placing some theatergoers at tables that surround the main playing area, on which the titular one sits.
It’s at a restaurant where Jada and the more pragmatic Dallas (Biko Eisen-Martin) meet long after their breakup. The present gives way to the past as they talk about old times, and the actors replay their characters’ history, from chance meeting to cheating. How did they get engaged only to end up apart? The answers aren’t terribly scintillating. He worked too much trying to jump-start his music career; she had an affair with a flight-attendant coworker, played by Michael Rishawn, who also garners a load of laughs playing the beleaguered restaurant host.
Eisen-Martin may have the least colorful character to play, but his grounded performance gives Dallas’s struggles resonance. Director Zhalion Levingston spearheads a lively production that at times appears to be trying too hard to make up for a slim script. To Lyons’ credit, his story isn’t neatly wrapped up at the end like in the rom-coms of the Hallmark Channel, but it plays like the theatrical equivalent of a grazing plate rather than a full-course meal.
