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nytheatre.com review by George Hunka
August 15, 2005

Two high-school acquaintances, now reaching middle-age, find themselves in a seedy motel room in industrial northern New Jersey for a somewhat pathetic tryst. As time progresses, they reveal that each has selfish ulterior motives for the rendezvous, and despite their age and adult accomplishments they themselves regress into adolescence, with violent consequences. Donna Fiumano weaves a haunting pattern of memory and aggression through her new play Payment, sensitively and skillfully directed by Amber Estes.My guess is that, in its unusual composition as a duet for two middle-aged upper-class Americans raking through the ashes of memory, this may be the most unusual offering in FrinegNYC. Laurel (Kim Chapman), a fading Hollywood actress with roots in a suburban New Jersey community, meets Allen (Brian Armstrong), now a successful CEO, by chance; drawn together, they wind up between the sheets. This sparks a teenage-style boastfulness and a bizarre puppy-dog affection in Allen; Laurel begins to get lost in memory and fantasies of escape. Both Chapman and Armstrong deliver strong performances here, perhaps a little restrained by opening-night jitters (especially Chapman, whose too-mature restraint in the first act doesn’t fully prepare us for her transformation into a man-eating virago in the second). While this is a quiet show, here and there it threatens to become too quiet, obscuring Fiumano’s spare but evocative renderings of the characters’ past.Contrary to intuition, these two-handed talkfests require a strong directorial hand to establish visual and aural patterns in support of the verbal. Estes, a first-time director, demonstrates a sensitive recognition of the emotional variations of the piece and a sympathy for both of the characters; more to the point, she knows that a dialogue-heavy piece has to move, and move it does. The achievement is that it moves so well, and she draws complex emotional states from her performers that dig deep into the underlying storms of the characters’ passions.The major fault of the otherwise subtly-structured and composed script is that it’s too anxious to tie up its loose ends in a burst of violence. While many of us are capable of resolving our emotional crises this way, the human truth is that we don’t, for a variety of social, cultural and psychological reasons. However theatrically effective, it’s a too-easy form of wish-fulfillment, and often the possibility of violence is far more poetic than its realization. (This is a fault that Payment shares with David Mamet’s fine Oleanna, a quote from which prefaces the show, so Fiumano needn’t worry too much.) But this shouldn’t detract from the dark, pessimistic vision of contemporary sexual and personal relationships that Fiumano and Estes draw for us here. Maybe it’s an unusual show for the Fringe: two main characters, one realistic set, a peek into the passions of middle-aged white upper-middle-class Americans. But less is definitely more.Frank DeMato has a small but memorable part in the second act; Lisa Donnelly managed the stage and assisted the director; Drew Bellware designed the sound; Dan Renkin and Brad Lemons coordinated the fights. All connected with the show should be proud.