After her witty, strikingly original, and justly acclaimed "Omnium Gatherum" (written with Theresa Rebeck), Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros disappoints with this standard-issue two-hander about Phillip and Sophie, a middle-aged, mismatched urban couple battling over an unborn child.
It's not as if the play is unwatchable. Gersten-Vassilaros writes some smart, funny dialogue and especially manages to engage when she articulates what sound like her own fears about mixing child rearing and artistry. The play is intermittently absorbing until the wildly contrived final sequence, which involves Sophie being tied to a chair while Phillip tries to convince her to have the child. The play then ends abruptly, without clearly resolving the issue of whether a child will be born or not. Presumably, Gersten-Vassilaros means for the audience to resolve the situation for themselves after exiting.
Alas, given the lack of shading and nuance in the characterizations, it's more likely you'll forget the play than consider the ambiguous ending. Sophie, a 42-year-old painter who talks of how children "turn lovers into relatives," is a paint-by-numbers bohemian type without even a hint of the bourgeois. Phillip, a 49-year-old commodities trader, is similarly uncomplicated, a mainstreamer who babbles on about his buddies and waxes ineloquent about refrigerators. Why are these people attracted to each other? It's totally unclear, especially since, after 90 minutes, we know virtually nothing of their personal histories.
Director Maria Mileaf's actors talk loudly and exhibit little chemistry. Melissa Leo emphasizes the negative and does not manage to make Sophie particularly likable. Jay O. Sanders has a shaggy-dog friendliness as Phillip, but he struggles, especially when delivering a long monologue about males, golf, and, yes, excrement. John Rothman is suitable and funny in a clichéd segment involving a nutty therapist.