A man and a woman meet at the bus stop. They are breathless, nervous, excited. Not the opening for a bad joke, the scene is the beginning of an upcoming play, a mysterious dramedy written by Steven Braunstein.
The Tangled Skirt, featuring only two actors and presented by the stage gurus and dramatic veterans of Actors Collaborative Toledo (ACT), the classic atmosphere of film noir comes to the stage. ACT’s first full-length, staged, dialogue-heavy play, will be performed at 8pm on Friday and Saturday, June 26-27 at The University of Toledo’s Center for Performing Arts.
“It’s like a chess game with fencing moves,” said Barbara Barkan, director and co-founder of Actors Collaborative Toledo. “The characters are constantly playing with words. There are many double entendres, some very funny.”
Skirting around the stage
Gutsy and steamy, The Tangled Skirt appears as a very simplistic play, featuring only two actors, played by John DuVall and Kate Abu-Absi, and one set. But with no intermission and 75 minutes of live action, the play is in your face. “It’s harsh,” said Barkan, smiling.
The play centers around the omitted backstories of two complicated characters— the fiery, attractive, yet dangerous Rhonda, and the more down-to-earth Bailey, a writer who can turn a conversation on a dime. The story feels like a sexy game of cat and mouse, without a clear dominant character.
“There is quite a range of emotions,” said Barkan. “From absolute terror, to guilt, playfulness, downright anger, to pain… they have secrets and a lot to protect… they are very careful with what to say, how they say it, and don’t want to be too quick or light to answer. It gets very complicated and interesting.”
With a single set, The Tangled Skirt evokes action through dialogue. Omission drives the narrative. Little is left on the table, drawing a curious audience in— tensely, quickly and feverishly.
“What I want to give the audience is not a short answer,” said Barkan. “They will come to their own conclusion… [the audience] might go in one direction and suddenly the actors will transition and the audience will suddenly think ‘huh?’”
Not your average noir
Presented as film noir, The Tangled Skirt poses a challenge to the live stage. While the script appealed to Barkan on many levels, the simplicity made it logistically plausible for ACT.
Most importantly, Barkan is a huge fan of noir and was excited by the challenge of bringing the moody, mysterious world of Alfred Hitchcock or Robert Siodmak to the theater’s stage.
“How do you do noir without the film?” asked Barkan, “how do you do those special, close-up effects? How do you do black and white? Smokey? Steamy? How do you do that on stage? I thought ‘I’m going to figure this out.’ I think we did.”
The Tangled Skirt’s location should also add to it’s success: the Center for Performing Arts features a small, intimate house, allowing the audience to best digest the subtleties of noir.
“I want the audience up tight and close,” said Barkan. “The [house] forces the audience to be with the actors.”
“An actor’s director”
Barkan is, by all definitions, a Toledo theater veteran. She began as an actress in Toledo after arriving in 1968, and has slowly transitioned into a director.
“I started directing about 8-9 years
ago,” said Barkan. “Recently, after rehearsal, I left and texted my daughter, in large letters, ‘GOD I LOVE DIRECTING.’”
With an impressive resume of stage leads, including a recent role as Louise Nevelson in ACT’s “Edward Albee’s Occupant,” her history as an actor gives her an advantage.
“I have been called an ‘actor's director’ because I have been on stage and bring that experience to directing,” said Barkan. “So I understand what an actor may be going through from that standpoint, and it took me a while to appreciate that [vulnerability] in myself and understand that. The next natural thing was for me to try directing.”
Barkan has been with ACT since the beginning, and her understanding of an actor’s vulnerability is essential when directing the works that ACT chooses. “We are different in a lot of ways [and] the things we do are not what a typically community theater would put on. We do riskier things… edgier things.”
The stage, like most art, provides the audience life experience without thrusting the responsibility of participation upon them. ACT chooses plays and readings that highlight a larger variety and broader spectrum of what people can expect and learn from theater.
“Theater belongs anywhere actors can congregate,” said Barkan.
Indeed, ACT savors the experience of this congregation.
8pm Friday June 26 & Saturday June 27.
$15. Center for Performing Arts,
2801 W. Bancroft St. 419-381-8681. actorscollaborative.wix.com/toledo, brownpapertickets.com/event/1591888