[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of “Minnesota Moon” by John Olive, directed by Tom Orth, starring Shane Young and Sean Babcock, and running through June 2 at Whitefire Theatre.
What if someone wrote a play about a memory of a moment in their lives they wish they could not only live again but stay in forever? “Minnesota Moon” is set over the span of a summer evening in Minnesota. Two young men, played by Shane Young and Sean Babcock are spending an evening together…imagining it will be one of the last times they would. One man leaves for college the next day and from there they both know he will not return to this small town in the middle of nowhere. The other, on the precipice of another kind of life. The kind spent staying put. Married, running a local auto repair, full of the beginnings of resentment for the friend with the will to leave.
They talk about their lives. But only in the way young boys do. Nothing too deep. Joking and teasing and avoiding pulling on the thread of real life. The night too beautiful to tarnish with facing the truth. Although they do. They talk about their friend who died on his motorbike weeks earlier. And the one who joined the army and is heading to Vietnam. They have already been forced into adulthood by these tragedies, even if they seem determined not to.
“Minnesota Moon” is a one-act play. Not long, 40 minutes or so, and at first glance, it seems simple enough. Two men larking about, drinking beer, reminding themselves of moments spent doing much the same with friends, or alone. But there’s so much more going on here. Made real by these two fine actors and their goofy, jocund playfulness.
There’s an ache to exist only in the moment. A wish for the moon to stay in the sky and the sun to stay sleeping. It’s melancholy and poetic. Even as the beer cans fly, they seem to drink and drink and never get drunk, such is the depth of their unspoken sadness. You could almost feel the tightness in their throats and the sweetness of their profound sense of loss. A loss of their friends. A loss of their connection. A loss of themselves. Standing on the edge of everything, with a little too much presence of thought and a world full of uncertainty. Everything unspoken.
For a shortish play about almost nothing, there’s an awful lot going on. Perhaps that is why Tom Orth and these too wonderful actors felt the need to produce this play. It’s the end of innocence. The beginning of etcetera. We are all ourselves on a precipice, now perhaps more than ever. How wonderful would it be to sit in the night, lit by a full moon and will all that away?
“Minnesota Moon” runs through June 2 at the wonderful Whitefire Theatre. These two actors are at the beginnings of their careers and it’s fitting that they start here, with this play.
I loved it. It grew on me in the days after as I considered their performances and the themes deftly disguised in this one night in Minnesota. A gem of a play beautifully produced. Bravo!
Tickets:
https://whitefire.stagey.net/projects/10008?tab=details
When:
May 11 – June 2
Thursday and Friday at 8PM
Where:
The Whitefire Theatre
13500 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
Minnesota Moon is Performed by Special Arrangement with Susan Schulman Literary Agency. 454 West 44th St. New York, NY 10036