BORNSTEIN: Strong production overshadows convoluted story founded on trickery

Strong production overshadows convoluted story that founders on trickery

By Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 31, 2008 at 1:59 p.m.

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Photo by Erin Tyler © E Tyler Photography/Paragon

Emily Paton Davies and Tyee Tilghman star in Paragon Theatre's This Is How It Goes.

It's not as though he didn't warn you.

"I think I might end up being an unreliable narrator here," says Scott McLean, playing the portentously named Man in This Is How It Goes.

Being warned isn't the same as being satisfied, though. While Neil LaBute's play chews on a number of big ideas - Rashomonic storytelling, hidden racism, marital strife - it's the first of these that is the least revelatory. Overall, LaBute's script, a weedy two-plus-hours without intermission, remains in the shadow of Paragon Theatre's extraordinary production, in which performances by McLean, Tyee Tilghman and Emily Paton Davies gleam and startle under Warren Sherrill's now-expected thoughtful, character-based direction.

The Man has returned to his small Midwestern hometown for undisclosed reasons, where he reacquaints himself with the girl he crushed on through high school and her husband, one of the few black men in town and the former school track star. The Man and Belinda engage in what should be named Bad Idea Flirting, followed by his Bad Idea Renting of the apartment over her garage. Their first meeting with her husband, Cody, is a masterpiece of discomfort, as Cody laughs at nothing and takes offense at nearly everything, finally rightly at the Man's breathtakingly misguided attempt at a joke.

All the stories and relationships are recounted through the Man, who will present one scenario, acted out in believable realism, then immediately undermine its truthfulness. LaBute is trying to say something about narrative objectivity here, but his message is convoluted and, by the end, tiresome.

Far more effective and painful is the depiction of a marriage that, for no big reason but hundreds of small ones, has deteriorated into loathing. In one scene, we see petty squabbles escalate into brutal abuse, only to realize that the scene may play into our expectations of racial and gender roles. Moments later, the scene is altered, with the villainy reapplied. No matter: The truth is, this couple shares a home, a child and a growing disgust with their marriage.

The misanthropic LaBute always paints men far more cynically than women; as a result, McLean and Tilghman receive the showier roles. McLean wins the audience's empathy with his genial narration, so artfully delivered it feels spontaneous, and a few changes in tone that suggest he may not be all he promises (also, Neil LaBute's name is on the script, so it's a safe bet). His character ingratiates himself even as the attempt becomes transparent.

Tilghman has the tricky job of playing a character in a race-centric story who is unlikable for reasons unrelated to race. He creates an athletic, financially successful man who is masculine and confident, abrasive and cocky. His Cody is tightly coiled, primed to explode at any moment.

Davies portrays a wistful woman who got everything she wanted and finds it thoroughly dissatisfying. She reveals her own sin, but it makes more sense, and the plays of anguish and lust on her face are complicated and intriguing.

LaBute pulls the play to an end with a final twist that is unnecessary and undermines his play's better angles. This Is How It Goes makes a far more interesting experiment when it sticks to character and subtlety than when it goes for shock and trickery.

This Is How It Goes

* Grade: B+

* When and where: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays through Aug. 16, Crossroads Theater, 2590 Washington St.

* Cost: $17 to $19, two-for-one Thursdays

* Information: 303-300-2210

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