Lost memories, missed opportunities, and the most dysfunctional family this side of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" permeate "Love Divided By/Times Three," Susan Charlotte's three related one-acts. Probably the best-adjusted of the bunch is daughter Sheila, who ends up as a successful artist with a steady stream of boyfriends. But when we first meet her in the curtain raiser, "Folded Hands," she's a morose schoolgirl, played by a somber, persuasive Fatima Ptacek, who has voluntarily remained in class during recess for some extra instruction by her admirably patient teacher (Loni Ackerman).
Little Sheila doesn't divulge information easily, and her favorite answer to her teacher's many questions is "Maybe." But we can tell she has a difficult home life, with a demanding mother, a mopey dad who apparently has just deserted the family, and a brother we'll find out depressing things about later. Director Antony Marsellis believes in loooong pauses, as if the performers were actually trying to figure out what to say next. It's realistic, but it's slow, and the silences are weighty and uncomfortable. It's also unclear what necessary knowledge about Sheila, if any, this first episode conveys.
The pacing remains lethargic in "Love Divided By," in which the now-grown Sheila (Lisa Bostnar) receives a tense visit from that brother, David (Kevin Stapleton), who has a violent streak. Stapleton rather overdoes the crudeness—why does David have a working-class accent if Sheila doesn't?—but he's convincingly dangerous and unpredictable, and there's some edge-of-seat doubt over whether Sheila will escape unharmed. For a brief while, it's riveting. But this brother and sister are an awful downer, and some of the audience didn't stay to find out what becomes of them in "Tango Finish."
Too bad, because things pick up when the focus shifts from Sheila and David to their in-denial mother, Rose (Marilyn Sokol). She won't accept the truth about David's instability and wants to see her children happily reunited. Hint: It ain't gonna happen.
Meantime, she has volunteered to mentor Mary (Ackerman), a charming dancer who is losing her memory. Sokol puts a great deal of feeling into her delivery, even when she's narrating, and Ackerman credibly wavers between graceful assurance and tragic disorientation as Mary, who becomes a surrogate daughter for Rose. There are also some nice tango melodies from Billy Goldenberg. But it's inconclusively wrapped up, and you have to endure a lot of narration about memory, which sounds like it should be meaningful but isn't.
I suppose Charlotte is urging us to value our faculties while we have them and using tango as an unlikely metaphor for family relationships—"Bodies traveling, while the faces look away, like parents and children," as Mary instructs at one point. But as messed up and actable as these characters are, "Love Divided By/Times Three" fails to evoke large emotions.
Presented by Cause Célèbre at the Kirk Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St., NYC. Oct. 7–31. Thu.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Wed., 2 and 8 p.m. Additional performances Tue., Oct. 19 and 26, 7 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 24, 7 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 31, 3 p.m. (212) 239-6200, (800) 432-7250, or www.telecharge.com.