Schedule Yourself For “Off Peak” At Great Barrington Public Theater
Say you’re on the Metro North train from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie. Say there’s no one else on the train but…but, hold on, your college sweetheart who you haven’t seen in 17 years makes an unexpected appearance? Yikes. It could be uncomfortable. It could be funny. It could be “Off Peak,” a play by Brenda Withers that Great Barrington Public Theater is presenting at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington July 6-23. The play had a successful run Off Broadway at the end of 2022.
An engaging two-hander, it stars Peggy Pharr Wilson and Kevin O’Rourke, and is directed by James Warwick. The New Yorker called it “sly, smart, often very funny. Withers’s script provides an abundance of emotional and intellectual twists and turns.” Sitting in briefly at a recent rehearsal, it was clear from the scene played out that there’s equal parts poignant monologues and rueful laughs.
What it is, essentially, is a play of forgiveness, says Warwick, who might be familiar to “Murder She Wrote” fans (the British-born actor had many roles in film and television). Martin wants to explain and apologize; Sarita has her own agenda. Their surprise encounter on the train, interrupted only by station announcements and an emergency stop (hello Metro North) gives them plenty of time to discover that each has different perspectives about their shared past.
“It’s a delicate piece of writing,” Warwick says, “but searingly accurate in its analysis of a human relationship.” O’Rourke (“Law and Order,” “Veep,” “Outsiders”) adds that it’s a particular challenge during the reflective sections to avoid sentimentality and self indulgence. At the rehearsal, he, Pharr and Warwick pause to ponder Martin’s seemingly contradictory recounting of the effect his mother’s death had on him — a consequence that anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one can attest.
Speaking of challenges, how to do you block a play that takes place in a train car where the focus is on a conversation between two people? It wasn’t obvious at the rehearsal, but Warwick [photo, left] affirms there will be some movement, minimal blocking within the set.
“This is a special joy for us — we’ve all worked together, but not in a full production,” Warwick says.
“I love working with people I know so well,” adds Pharr Wilson, who will be instantly recognizable to Berkshire audiences. “It gives me permission to make mistakes. And I’m thrilled about being in a play with two grown-up adults just being people.”
Two old flames, just being people — but funnier and probably more eloquent than most of us, despite the stammering and self-interruptions playwright Withers has built into the play. As I stepped into the rehearsal room, the first line I heard was “Every life has its disappointments.”
Yes, but unlikely “Off Peak” will be one of them.
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