NEW YORK—Not everything ends in an explosion, such as the finale episode of The Sopranos and Jez Butterworth's very intriguing mystery/comedy thriller Parlour Song, presented by the Atlantic Theater Company.
Set in England, the show centers around friends Dale (Jonathan Cake) and Ned (Chris Bauer), who live right next door to each other (they share a wall), as well as Ned's wife Joy (Emily Mortimer) and Dale's (unseen) wife Lyn.
Ned is a demolitions expert, and a likable enough fellow, who gets paid to destroy everything from carports and skyscrapers to shopping malls and stadiums.
This is all in the name of progress, as he puts it, the new making way for the old. It's a job Dale (who owns three car wash businesses) would love to have. However it quickly becomes apparent that all is not right with Ned.
It seems "things are disappearing" as Ned notes with a tone of dread. Various objects have been vanishing from his home (from cufflinks to photos), starting to make him wonder if he's losing his mind. He also, according to Dale who serves narrator of the piece, has a penchant for sleepwalking. Which begs the question: Is Ned stealing things himself or could it be Joy (the only other person who could do so)?
While Ned loves Joy with all his heart, he soon admits their marriage "is not so good." Their once passionate bliss has grown stale and cold, though Ned, who often has problems communicating on any deep level, has no idea why. (They haven't played a sexy game of scrabble in bed for a long time). Ned's also terrified of going to sleep, as he's been having the exact same dream time and again, one which strikes terror into his heart.
Not so much as whodunit as a psychological character study, the play peels back layer upon layer of each of these three people, with numerous twists and turns along the way. The script deliberately doesn't fill in everything we need to know about the characters at first, instead offering little hints about their discontent, motives and fears, all of which combine to add clues to the puzzle.
Much of the credit must to go director Neil Pepe, who keeps cranking up the tension, and the superb cast, each of who make their characters interesting more by what they don't say than what they do.
Dale, for example has an interesting set of priorities, often mentioning important points (such as his two kids) only as an afterthought.
Joy, who originally comes across as a cold, calculating women, turns out to have a huge well of passion but is suffocating in her marriage. While nice guy Ned is sitting on a mountain of rage and jealousy and looks like he's getting ready to blow.
A nice touch was easing the tension with a large amount of humor, such as when the somewhat overweight Ned begs the trim Dale to help him get back into shape (and the subsequent results).
One key point related by Ned regards a present he bought for Joy that brought tears to her eyes. The reason for those tears will depend on how one interprets the Ned's story, along with just about everything else in the text. This is a play with questions upon questions and no easy answers—but it's a lot of fun going along for the ride as you try to figure out the truth.
Sets by Robert Brill are good and the lighting by Kenneth Posner is excellent.
Parlour Song
Presented by the Atlantic Theater Company
Linda Gross Theater
336 West 20th Street
Tickets: 212-279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com
Closes: March 29, 2008
Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes
Judd Hollander is the New York correspondent for the London publication
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