GBS

On the evidence of his two-character play "GBS," playwright Jason Hall seems unfamiliar with the phrase "Show us; don't tell us." Written mostly as two brothers recounting their tentative reconciliation when their father falls ill with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (hence the title), Hall seems incapable of writing scenes of dialogue, as remembered by brothers Sam (Jason Jacoby) and Rich (Curran Connor), without having whomever is telling the story add "he says" after the other brother speaks. Worse is when a silence falls, punctuated by the narrator adding, "Silence."

As Sam and Rich drive from the airport to the hospital to visit their father, they make an unfathomable number of pit stops, considering that their father is seriously ill and the U.K.-based Sam hasn't seen him in three years. Each unscheduled stop seems intended to drive home, by the brothers' disparate reactions to the events of the day, that the divorced Rich has a temper (Connor obliges by shouting most of his dialogue) and that the gay Sam is a bit of a priss; neither brother is much fun. And Hall's device of having Connor and Jacoby alternating as the show's narrator is flawed and annoying. Nothing is too small to be described, which has an ultimately detrimental effect.

As directed by Jay Rohloff, "GBS" has a remarkably overstuffed feel to it, as the actors both describe in detail what's happening and simultaneously mime everything they're describing, from driving a car to being attacked by an angry ex-wife. Hall covers a lot of ground in only 90 minutes, but the sole remarkable facet of the play, which continually questions a family member's right to leave home and forge a new life far away, is Hall's refusal to offer up a conventional happy ending. As the brothers point out, sometimes people get better slowly and sometimes they don't. These two men fall firmly into the latter category.



Presented by the Clockwork Theatre at the Kirk Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St., NYC. March 28–April 10. Tue., 7 p.m.; Wed.–Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 and 8 p.m. (212) 279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com. Casting by Judy Bowman Casting.