Playwright: Tanya Barfield. At: About Face Theatre, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: $40, $20 students and seniors. Runs through: July 1
It's hard to say where exactly Tanya Barfield's Bright Half Life starts in terms of time and space.
The play's form is that of a deconstructed rom-com, where seminal moments in a couple's history get played, array ed and repeated in juxtapositions that demonstrate how deep their bond goes. There's no defined plot or goal, no grand event to be explored: nothing but a long-term relationship. The trick of Bright Half Life is to succeed at creating a full picture with the barest bits of set pieced and information. Yet this is no average portrait, but one that will make its audience recall their richest intimacies with its energy.
Erica and Vicky are a bit of an odd couple: Vicky a striving business professional, Erica her itinerant temp worker, Vicky a detailed femme, Erica a more casual butch. Although the conversation between them is nonlinear, it feels like a continuous flow through which their relationship can be observed and judged.
The most remarkable thing about Bright Half Life is how natural it all feels. There's just enough details about each's background to suggest the shape of their conflicts and intimacy. Barfield's language is more pedestrian than poetic, but the actresses trade words in the rhythm of well-worn memory. The same goes for physicality. Argumentsand every conversation between these two is intense enough to be a potential argumentare heightened by little twists of lips and eyeball flips. Longer scenes, such as the couple's first date whereupon Vicky takes a very terrified Erica on a Ferris wheel, get enriched by the same excellent physicality, clenched hands and clamped knees. Their suggested intimacy is quietly gorgeous, a sinuous dance between the actresses' two bodies that is not exaggerated much, but simply allowed to be beautiful.
The more one reflects on what's actually seen, though, holes start to appear. Why exactly were Erica and Vicky drawn to each other in the first place? Clearly they connect, but the initial connection is unclear. And though professional Vicky seems to be slightly more in control, the messier Erica is the more developed character. We know her fears and goals, and it's her decisions and admissions that do most of the narrative driving. Erica's chaos makes things happen, while Vicky remains a bit more of an idea reacting to Erica's proclamations.
But are these flaws? The whole thing is so well done, and even though it's poignant overall, it's often strikingly hilarious. Emotional investment in the totality of Bright Half Life is a given, whether you die laughing at transparent passive aggression, bite your lip at the too-real togetherness, or sense tears prick your eyes at the emotional weight of the pain and love the two express throughout, over and over again.