Although Folie's "Naked By The River" is not a new play, it adds a new flavor of humor to Buffalo's stage this February.
Set in 1995, the play introduces the audience to Tim (Andrew Michalski, previously seen at Alleyway in "A Question Of Color" last fall), who is offered the chance to work with Peggy (Stephanie Bax). She would rather have gotten a woman to work as her secretary/paralegal, but since Tim is a friend of the senior partner at her law firm, she doesn't have much of a choice.
Although each of them is involved with someone else, Tim allows Peggy the chance to read the book he's been working on - a piece he hopes to self-publish on the newly popular democratic medium of the Internet. She falls in love with him and sets out to steer him away from the net and into the more lucrative world of New York City's literary publishing.
The writing in the first act is a bit shaky, especially during Tim's description of his life-changing experience, but it's hard to tell where to start raving about this piece. Both Bax and Michalski carry the action through with perfect comic timing. Bax is appropriately uptight as Peggy, allowing the audience to like her character without fully sympathizing with her (at least until the second act).
As John in last fall's "A Question of Color," Michalski played a character who was basically good-natured and easygoing and he starts off his performance here with a similar attitude. But when Peggy and Tim begin to move further toward a friendship, then further into "relationship-land," the audience begins to see the cracks in his laid-back, artistic security. Although Tim's personality changes considerably in the time periods between scenes, Michalski never leaves the audience in doubt as to the core of the character.
The most comic performance comes from Sarah Nowak as Gabriella, a publishing maven who only appears in the opening of act two, but makes her presence felt over and over again.
When Tim tries to emphasize how little interest he has in Gabrielle publishing his book by asking her to leave, she exclaims: "You wouldn't kick a pregnant woman down five flights of stairs!" With her bladder that's "the size of a thimble" and silver-plated nails that count off alternative after alternative, Gabriella picks up the slackening humor as Tim and Peggy's relationship troubles begin to come between them.
In era-perfect hair, clothing, and shoes, the timing of the piece is unassuming but clear. Even Tim's cellular phone is right on - a huge, clunky gadget most UB students will remember seeing in middle school.
Director and costume designer Joyce Stilson has done a brilliant job with this piece, pulling together a cast that is perfectly suited to their roles and then making sure they do their best to cover any weaknesses in the script.
The script itself is rife with one-liners, keeping the entire house (packed on opening night) laughing and waiting eagerly to see what would happen next. Between chasing her assistant around her desk and insulting his intelligence, Peggy keeps not only Tim but also the audience constantly surprised, which only makes the surprise ending more of a treat.
"Naked By The River" will play at the Alleyway Theatre through Feb. 23. Alleyway offers a student discount of $10 with proper identification, as well as a pay-what-you-can performance on Thursday, Feb. 6.
The theater is located at 1 Curtain Up Alley, between Studio Arena and Shea's on Main Street in Buffalo.
