THEATER - "Nerve"

According to the cast bios, playwright Adam Szymkowicz is currently studying with Christopher Durang at Julliard. This is a good opportunity for him to work with a master in the field of jittery, dark, serio-comedic storytelling, and a chance for Szymkowicz to turn this entertaining “scene”—I hesitate to call Nerve a play—into a more rounded piece. For seventy minutes, Susan (Susan Louise O’Connor) and Elliot (Travis York) sit across from one another at a bar table, on a real-life Internet date, and throw their manias at each other. This makes Nerve an extended version of that very same scene in Durang’s Beyond Therapy, which may explain his current position at Julliard. Szymkowicz throws in a few surreal glimpses into the character’s minds—one likes to choreograph dance to calm herself, the other likes to play with a British-accented puppet—but the sum total is cheap theater: shallow and callous. (The nerve!)

That such a one-dimensional topic (the date gone wrong, spiked with obsession and depression) manages to stay endearing and sharply humorous for the first two-thirds of the play either speaks well of Symkowicz’s ability or exposes what’s really on the average theatergoer’s mind. A little of both, perhaps, or maybe the free beer that comes with every ticket makes it a looser atmosphere. No matter how relaxed the audience may be, however, it’s hard to commiserate with the two-person cast: the blocking keeps them sitting at a high table on an already elevated stage. The theater has already constructed a bar at ground level—had the action taken place there, with the audience sitting at tables around them, the intimacy might’ve lent some emotion to the show. Instead, it’s like watching something exciting from way over on the other end of the bar.

Congratulations to O’Connor and York, who more than keep pace with the dialogue and manage to play such comedic roles with such straightforwardness. It’s a shame their commitment to these “characters in need of commitment” (that’s a double entendre) never develops Nerve into anything more than a brief and quirky fling.

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14th Street Y (344 East 14th Street)
Tickets (212-868-4444): $15
Performances: Monday @ 7:00 / Thursday – Saturday @ 8:00