Because this play is, in part, a celebration of nonverbal means of communication, this review could arguably consist of one long growl. True, that wouldn't convey a lot of nuance, but neither does Mark Stein's misshapen dark comedy. Stein tells the story of a Duluth, Minn., policeman named Ken (Christian Anderson) who falls madly in love with a strange but sexy woman named Abby (Katy Selverstone). Abby uses her sense of smell a lot, and she insists on leaving a window open at all times, in case she feels the need to suddenly run around outdoors. Ken finds this inexplicable behavior incredibly attractive, to the point at which he barely blinks an eye when she confesses she is a werewolf. (As Joe E. Brown says in Some Like It Hot, "Nobody's perfect.") But, when Abby announces she has formed an attachment to a male wolf during one of her romps through the forest, things get sticky. It's one thing to have competition; it's another to have a rival who can rip out your throat with his teeth.
Although he mines a fair number of laughs along the way, Stein apparently means for us to take this tale seriously. That's a lot to ask. Supporting characters are referred to as "predators" or "domesticated," and pretty much everyone is driven by their animalistic needs for sex and/or power. As drama, this is pretty thin; as a metaphor, it is clunky and reductive.
This co-production of the Rubicon Theatre and the Manitoba Theatre Centre had its world premiere one year ago in Winnipeg. It has traveled south with most of the mixed American/Canadian cast intact. Although all the actors are clearly talented, they are not well-served by director Steven Schipper, who seems to have instructed them to avoid emotional expressiveness and concentrate on giving odd line readings. Fortunately the performances get more relaxed and natural as the action heats up; Anderson has a nice-guy charisma, and Selverstone is appropriately enigmatic. John Thompson's wide, flat set resembles a movie screen, which reminds us that this kind of fable is better suited to the cinema.