What if you were able to view your life as it was in the past, and will be in the future? Would you refuse to accept the inevitable, or do you believe your destiny has been decided by some unknown power. Welcome to The Marriage
Zone, where a couple halfway through their not-so-happy wedded lives are
confronted with just such questions. It’s an intriguing conceit and handled
brilliantly by author and director Jeff Gould and, after you see this play, you
will never think of your own relationships the same way again.
Actually, with this excellent
cast, it’s a sweetly told story of a marriage that is starting to unravel. Beth
(Anne Leighton) cannot stop picking on her husband Cal (Jeff Pride); he has
sunk into a sardonic attitude that blocks her out, while their son Ryan (Ciaran
Brown) has his ears plugged into a world of music. It’s a familiar domestic
comedy until visitors arrive: Skip and Ellie (Ryan Cargill and Megan Barker),
young and in love, can’t keep their hands off each other; Mike and Liz (Alex
Hyde-White and Jacee Jule), cynical, divorced and full of regrets. We recognize
these people because we are these people. 
On another level it’s a
triangle between wide eyed youth, mid-career strugglers, and jaded elders.
Gould also has a sense of humor that pokes fun at us! e.g. just as my companion
whispered to me “I feel like I’m in the Twilight
Zone” the onstage senior said the exact words.
At The Secret Rose Theatre,
11246 Magnolia Blvd. NoHo, through September 24.
Tickets: 323-960-7784 or www.Play411.com/marriagezone Photos by Ed Krieger.
Also reviewed in the August
issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY.
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