Modern theater often lends itself to empty flash and diversions.
The quest to sell tickets results in countless plays that boast a catchy “hook” or premise, but little depth. Sometimes, however, the best playwrights remind us that the simplest stories are often the most powerful.
Lanford Wilson, who died earlier this year, wrote “Ludlow Fair” and “Home Free.” Both are raw and candid portraits of people at their most vulnerable. UNM student Michael Carter directs these two one-act plays, each ostensibly about a pair of people sharing an apartment, and joins them for one cohesive, rewarding night of theater.
Carter sets the two plays side-by-side, literally and figuratively, making the two pairs of residents in “Ludlow Fair” and “Home Free” next-door neighbors. As the action in one apartment reaches a fever pitch, the characters in the other may suddenly stop, wondering what’s going on next door. The two plays, presented together, not only contrast but share moments of stunning synchronicity. One wonders if this is what the playwright intended all along.
The characters Wilson created feel real, and the four performers do their parts justice. Under Carter’s direction, they not only portray humans authentically, but nail the relationships that make each story work.
Lawrence and Joanna Brown, the agoraphobic brother and sister in “Home Free,” portrayed by Austin Rising and Gina Ferraro, are enigmatic and fascinating. They seem mentally unstable but aware, creating their own world and rules. Despite strange, childlike behavior and hints of possible incest, their story is heartfelt and moving.
Rising and Ferraro lend the two characters a familiarity that suggests a life-long, complex personal history, and when their lives tragically unravel, you can hardly take your eyes away.
As the two roommates in “Ludlow Fair,” Carly Shea Moses as Agnes and Sara Rivera as Rachel are no less fascinating. Both wrestle with Rachel’s earlier decision to break up with her boyfriend and report him to the police. Rachel partially wants to undo this, but the play is more concerned with where the two roommates are headed. Rachel and Agnes spend the night fighting about their identities as much as Rachel’s decision. Moses and Rivera make you feel like a third roommate, just as invested in what happens next, just as curious about what tomorrow will bring.
Carter confesses in the program that the piece is a passion project that took no small effort to execute.
“Ludlow Fair” and “Home Free” are consummately directed, with a specificity and attention to detail that bring the best out of the material. The production, for a moment, threatens to drag toward the end, but the play’s climax is gripping.
Clever lighting gives extra weight to the play’s strong finale.
“Ludlow Fair” and “Home Free” leave the audience with many unanswered questions, yet the stories feel painfully true and surreal.
Ludlow Fair,
Home Free
The Filling Station
1024 Fourth St. S.W.
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Through July 31
Friday and Saturday 8 p.m.
Sunday 2 p.m.
$12 general admission
$10 students and seniors
