Not That There's Anything Wrong with That

Unconventional space, young company, new playwright. Totally worked.

TheaterLab, the upstart ensemble dedicated to cultivating new talent, has brought another fresh play to town, this time for its east coast premiere.

I fumbled my way to Plant Zero's RVA event space (I'm getting marginally better at navigating Manchester with each foray there) to take in "See Jane Quit," a play about a young restaurant worker determined to finally quit smoking.

Because well know that restaurant workers who don't smoke are few and far between.

Waiting in a long line to pick up my ticket, I saw lots of familiar faces, not necessarily of people I knew, but of faces I knew from seeing theater productions.

It turned out it was "industry night" so lots of actors were there on their night off.

Let's see, I saw one from "Race," which I'd seen Saturday and a couple others from "It's a Fabulous Life," which I'd seen Thursday and another from "Wild Party," but also grade A boring non-actors types like me.

The artistic director was working the waiting group like it was a receiving line at a wedding, hugging and kissing left and right.

I'd been inside the space before - for the Italian film fest, to see Hotel X, to hear Ian MacKaye- but tonight it had been configured with the set in the middle of the room and rows of chairs on two sides.

Maggie Bavolack, who'd been so impressive in "Riding the Bull," played Jane with all the piss and vinegar of a 29-year old who lives with her cantankerous, deaf, southern grandmother ("That's because your generation places no value on language!") and works endless double shifts.

Her brother (played by the reliably good Adam Mincks), friend/sister-in-law (Louise Mason, whom I remembered as a fine Helena in "Midsummer"), grandmother (Linda Beringer playing Bessie, my grandmother's name) and even love interest (awkwardly funny Chandler Hubbard) are all eager to do whatever it takes to avoid stressing Jane so she won't reach for cigarettes.

Seems it takes a team to quit.

So major secrets are kept from Jane, but not the audience, as we learn that practically all of them are undergoing some major life change.

The dialog was fast and funny and by intermission even Jane had revealed a major secret.

It was hysterical how, once the first act ended, half the audience bolted for the cold environs of the building to have the cigarette Jane had been denying herself.

When the group behind me got up to go smoke, one asked another if she could have a sip of his soda before they went out. No, he said, he was very sick.

On returning reeking of smoke, the sick one was lecturing the others about his need to inhale.

"You know, they say never try quitting while you're sick because it makes you sick just to quit."

Smoker logic of the highest order.

The second act picked up six months later when everyone is dealing with the outcomes of their secrets.

By then everyone has figured out that life seldom works out the way you plan for it to. True story, kids.

TheaterLab may be young, but they're wise beyond their years.

We're a better theater town for having them raising up a new crop of theater artists...but Grandma was wrong. Their generation clearly does place value on language.

As Bessie would say, praise the lord (and pass the biscuits).