Between the Lovers

Lovers

Written by Brian Friel

Directed by Sarah Szanton

At Adams House LCR tonight and tomorrow

SET IN NORTHERN IRELAND on a beautiful summer's day, Brian Friel's Lovers gives a warm (and loving) glance at two 17-year-old fiances. Sitting on a hill overlooking their town, Mag (Sarah Jane Cohen) and Joe (Aaron Carlos) try to study for final exams but mainly dream of their future together. Before long, Friel introduces a tragic twist: the couple will die in a boating accident before the afternoon is over.

Unfortunately, the drama's unusual set-up prevents this revelation from being very affecting; on a platform, the lovers talk and laugh while two "Commentators" intervene to relate, without emotion, the events of the day. The audience is primarily disoriented by their frequent interruptions.

Cohen and Carlos are so very good with their tender, amusing scenes that they manage to steal the show from the somewhat clever narrative device. They seem to resist the heavy hand of the playwright and keep their characters alive.

The Commentators begin the action with brief but telling portraits of Joe and Mag. Among other bits of information, they inform us that he was "an excellent student, not brilliant, but very keen and industrious," that she was "intelligent but scattered," and that Mag's pregnancy necessitated their marriage.

From the moment of their entrances, Cohen and Carlos fill out these character outlines admirably. Cohen's Mag is a bright-eyed, quick-witted girl who loves to speculate upon anything but the final exam subjects at hand. With great charm, she prattles on about everything from their new apartment to the laughable nuns at school to maternal intuition; finally, she resorts to faking labor pains to take Joe's attention from his "grubby old books."

IN HIS GREAT wisdom, Friel eventually turns the tables upon Joe. Having offended Mag into stony silence, Joe tries desperately to win back her favor. These moments provide Carlos with fine comic material as he jumps from one impersonation to another, from one deliciously wicked private joke to the next. Both actors sustain their own extended monologues beautifully, but, just as important, they also convey a great depth of attachment and intimacy whenever Mag and Joe are reconciled.

The Commentators do less well with their material but that perhaps is a fault inherent in the play. In any case, a host of other elements join together to make this one-act play a brisk, satisfying show. Szanton's sensitive direction, Friel's delightfully natural dialogue, and the nuanced lead performances compensate for an often unnerving dramatic structure.