‘Westminster’
Anyone who has ever felt afraid at the sight or sound of a snarling, growling dog will understand the sense of discomfort, fear and potential terror felt by the characters in Brenda Withers’ new dark comedy “Westminster,” which is receiving its world premiere in an eventful production at Urbanite Theatre in Sarasota.
The play is ostensibly about friendship and a dog, a much-heard but never seen gift from one couple to another, but Withers addresses so much more, perhaps too much.
Over the course of the play’s nearly 90 minutes, you come to realize the dog is a stand-in for all the things in our world we don’t fully grasp and that make us afraid, the kinds of things that keep our nation divided politically, socially and culturally. The characters discuss, in sometimes diffused ways, differences among races, nationalities and
By Brenda Withers. Directed by Summer Wallace. Reviewed March 23. Through April 28 at Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St., Sarasota. Tickets are $42, $28 for under 40, $5 students. 941-321-1397; urbanitetheatre.com classes, the struggle to understand and support those less fortunate, and how some treat animals like humans and humans like animals.
That dog becomes a representation of how the world is falling apart, which seems to happen right before your eyes.
The brisk-paced play staged by Summer Wallace, the theater’s producing artistic director, won the 2023 Urbanite Modern Works Festival, and many in Saturday night’s audience were laughing uproariously at the sometimes banal but mostly boisterous, surprising, uncomfortable and disturbing conversations between the two couples.
Things start pleasantly, or at least the two couples hold back their real thoughts before the tenor changes and their darkest feelings are unleashed.
Pia (played by Dekyi Rongé) and Tim (Jonathan Fielding), have welcomed Pia’s childhood friend Krys (Alex Pelletier) and her current boyfriend Beau (Gregg Weiner) into their well-appointed contemporary and suburban home (well designed by Jeffrey Weber).
But something is off almost from the beginning as we first see them watching the dog run around the yard through a living room window.
There’s a forced sense of joviality and friendship that adds a level of tension to what initially appears to be an amicable exchange. Rongé and Fielding make you feel the discomfort of their characters as they attempt to act normally while wondering how they got into this situation. Their every glance, word or gesture is tinged with concern about how to bring a quick end to this awkward reunion.
Meanwhile, Krys and Beau are eager to have it continue but for different reasons. At first we’re led to believe they just want to share their love of dogs, or the idea that they know Pia and Tim are more financially able to take care of this particular animal. Things turn dark as Pelletier makes you concerned for Krys’ safety. Is Beau abusive? He fights with the dogs, why not with her her? And everything in Weiner’s gruff, mono-syllabic, argumentative nature fuels those thoughts.
As the conversation flows, other issues emerge that lead the characters into unexpected territory, loud debates, one-sided arguments and the rehashing of old concerns. The laughs that came easily fade a bit as Withers gets more serious. Her approach can be heavy handed at times and she may be reaching too far (at least as it is presented now) in trying to address so many major topics. It is an ambitious effort and worth further development after this premiere production.
Withers and Fielding wrote one of my favorite earlier Urbanite plays, “Northside Hollow,” about trapped miners that began in a realistic style and ventured in other directions. Withers does the same here. I wasn’t laughing as much as others around me, but I was captivated by the performances and the story even as I was shaking my head thinking how unrealistic the scenario is. It is, and it isn’t. Everything, like the world around us, is a tad off kilter.
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