On the Line

The Canal Park Playhouse is a lovely new theater housed in a building that dates back to 1828, located on the barren and traffic-plagued western end of Canal Street, where it feels like a refuge. There is an inviting feel both to the front room, with its tables set up for cabaret, and the back room, which the program describes accurately as "an intimate, gentle place" of 55 seats.

It is a good setting for "On the Line," an intimate if not-so-gentle play about three blue-collar guys in a small town in New Jersey who have been friends since the first grade and the tension among them caused by a strike in the local factory. Although they all start out "on the line"—the assembly line—Jimmy (Matt Citron) becomes a union rep, Mikey (Jedadiah Schultz) joins management, and Dev (Jacob Knoll) remains a worker and the most ready to get into a fight. Playwright Joe Roland treats Mikey as a decent if naive person, but it is clear that his sympathies lie with the workers.

"On the Line" might sound as if it could serve as the kind of galvanizing theater for the Great Recession that Clifford Odets' "Waiting for Lefty" (about a taxicab driver's strike) was for the Great Depression, especially since Zuccotti Park, headquarters of the Occupy Wall Street movement, is located within walking distance. But this revival of the 2006 play is stronger as a tale of camaraderie than of economic stress. One reason for this is the chemistry of the three cast members; we enjoy their company as they enjoy each other. The downbeat effects of a strike are something with which we have become familiar and seem nearly generic in the retelling here, while the particulars of these characters and their interaction feel fresh. The highlights of the play are in the beginning: Dev's wonderful opening monologue about how identical his days are and why he loves that they are ("I know who I am"), followed by a long and funny story told in turn by all three characters about the violent schoolyard beginning of their decades-long friendship.

"On the Line" got a lot of attention when it was first done because its producer was Mike Nichols. If director Michael Tisdale has added a few unnecessary projections this time around, he also offers a trimmed-down, well-acted 90 minutes in a welcome new space.

Presented by and at Canal Park Playhouse, 508 Canal St., NYC. Nov. 1–19. Wed.–Sat., 7:30 p.m. (212) 352-3101, (866) 811-4111, www.theatermania.com, or www.canalparkplayhouse.com.