
Biko Eisen-Martin and Kara Young in Table 17 (Photo: Daniel J. Vasquez)
I’ve often wondered why there aren’t more romance plays. Sadly Douglas Lyons’s comedy-romance Table 17 does not make the strongest case for them. Even with the always riveting Kara Young, the play is a shallow exploration of relationships, love, and romance. With wispy characters, mild laughs, and cringey dialogue, it’s hard to root for this couple at all.
Jada (Kara Young) and Dallas (Biko Eisen-Martin) are exes who are meeting for the first time in two years, after breaking off their engagement. We don’t know right off the bat why Dallas has called Jada and asked to meet. She’s as curious as we are.
With jittery nerves and a lot of trying to figure out what the other person is thinking, the couple sit down to dinner, waited on by a frustrated, single, gay restaurant host/waiter, River (Michael Rishawn) who gets sucked into their vortex (“Straights!”) whether he wants to be there or not.
Through a series of flashbacks we see their original meet cute, their engagement, and how things started to go off the rails.
Kara Young, is, as ever, and incredible physical performer to watch. She has this way of expressing characters through herky-jerky and isolated limb movement. By which I mean she can make even her ankles an expressive platform for Jada if need be.
The way she enters a room varies depending on her characters confidence and emotional state. For instance, during their engagement scene, she steps into the room and does an off-beat wedding march towards the ring. She is all personality but even her lively performance can’t really inject this play with enough verve. Dallas is kind of dull as a relationship foil.
Michael Rishawn plays a number of characters including a playa bartender hitting on Jada and Jada’s frisky co-worker. While they are only sketches of characters, he does make each unique.
Part of the audience is seated at glowing cafe tables like the one the couple is at, though the space shifts with small changes to the set. Sometimes we are in the restaurant, or their apartment, or on an airplane (Jada is a flight attendant).
I might be getting a little tired of the audience at cabaret tables thing. It feels like a minimal effort claim on some kind of “immersiveness” and watching the audience watch the play is awkward at best.
Here, there are some minor audience interactions (the randy bartender brings a drink to an audience member and flirts with her). The cast walks through the table area at times or it becomes the dance floor where Jada and Dallas first met. The lighting does not always highlight the actors among the audience so sometimes they just get lost in the dimness. Overall, the immersive cafe does not really add much to the visual landscape of the show or enhance the setting.
But audience is a crucial aspect of the play’s style. Lyons’s play is full of fourth-wall breaking asides and invitations to the audience to respond to the couple’s questions and concerns. For instance, they ask us to weigh in on their “date” outfits. And they want audible reactions. They seek validation and assurances on their choices. And when there is a twist the audience was loud in its opinions about one character.
While I appreciate the effort to drop some of the outmoded Victorian silence so often “expected” at the “theatuh” they had to draw out audience reactions (except near the end when again the audience had strong feelings).
The sound and lighting “snap” to indicate these wall break moments in a bit of a cartoonish fashion. It sets a sitcom tone for the play, but then it slides into a more “serious” analysis of this relationship. If one could call it that.
Ultimately, it’s a flimsy play with a muddled message about love and soulmates. It ends up a little like overheard gossip about people you don’t know–a bit of “he did what?” and “she said what?” and sure you can pick a side in a relationship you have no stakes in. But the gossip easily fades and is forgotten.
River is supposed to provide side eye and commentary on the going’s on of the evening. Eventually, as he’s suffering in singleness (ugh), he’s meant to take romantic inspiration from these messy “straights.” But honestly he should aim higher.