In case you didn't know, BBF stands for "best friends forever." In this small but tender tale, Anna Ziegler has created a play about friendship and early love that seems newly minted. Hers is a voice that is youthfully authentic, with a freshness that is pleasing to listen to. While she writes of three befogged young people struggling to find their way in the world, Ziegler is crisply clear-headed, knowing precisely where the play is going. The enterprising Women's Expressive Theater -- WET for short -- has again introduced us to a female playwright of surprising professional polish.
The story is simple but psychologically complex. Lauren (Sasha Eden) and Eliza (Laura Heisler) are best friends through childhood, but when, in early adolescence, Lauren mistreats this friendship, there are dire results. Lauren meets the wonderfully sane and stalwart Seth (Jeremy Webb), but the relationship is haunted by Lauren's guilt over her adolescent past. The scene sequence switches backward and forward in time, and Time -- past, present and future -- is almost another character in the play. Hence, the play does suffer from the sound-bite syndrome -- a prevalent, ever-spreading theatrical disease. There are umpteen brief scenes: How hard those two female stagehands work on Robin Vest's cleverly clean set. Amid these swift changes of place and time, one hungers for at least one sustained scene that might allow the play to breathe a little.
Under Josh Hecht's detailed and sensitive direction, the three performers shine. Eden's troubled Lauren is the play's centerpiece, convincing both as adolescent and questing young woman. Heisler, too, is a most believable teenager, and when allowed to briefly present a lively fourth character, demonstrates a vibrant versatility. Webb easily defines that most difficult of the male species, a good guy; his interpretation glows with integrity.
As one of the trio comments: "We're on the edge of our lives" -- an applicable observation here for playwright and performers, all for whom palpable promise hangs in the air.
Presented by Women's Expressive Theater
at DR2 Theatre, 103 E. 15th St., NYC.
Feb. 24-March 31. Mon.-Sat., 8 p.m.
(212) 239-6200 or (800) 432-7250 or www.telecharge.com.
Casting by Jack Doulin.