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Truth hurts in 'Unseen'

By Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 8, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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A trio of characters (Carolyn Valentine, Jarrad Holbrook, center, and Marty Lindsey) struggle with having abandoned their hearts' desires in "Sight Unseen."

Photo by Paragon

A trio of characters (Carolyn Valentine, Jarrad Holbrook, center, and Marty Lindsey) struggle with having abandoned their hearts' desires in "Sight Unseen."

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There's a lot of compromise and very little understanding at the heart of Sight Unseen, Donald Margulies' 1992 tale of melancholy.

Margulies ties many threads into his play, which leapfrogs from the present to different periods in the past and the near future. Jonathan Waxman has become an art star, the kind of painter who's only a few weeks away from starring in a high- end vodka campaign. On the way to his first London retrospective, he stops by the English farmhouse of his college girlfriend and her husband. It's not the coziest of reunions, not least because the house is underinsulated.

Jonathan, willfully oblivious to how privileged he has become, is a poor match for Patricia's barely bur- ied hostility. Written by Margulies for detail and directed with quiet control by Mare Trevathan, Patricia is some of the finest work actress Carolyn Valentine has done. She's become an expat archaeologist constantly proving how much more authentic her new life is, and letting her anger escape in little bubbles.

Her husband, Nick (funny and then threatening in Jarrad Holbrook's performance), was clearly her second choice, a default position when she gave up on romance. He's passionate for her, though, and although he's hilariously laconic at first, Nick is soon working hard to dismantle Jonathan.

Interspersed with scenes of the visit are those a few days later, in which Jonathan is interviewed by a German art critic working on a hatchet job. Played by Suzanne Favette, Grete is smart and out for blood, cloaked under fawning fandom. The criticisms of contemporary art - and the criticism of that criticism - weren't particularly novel even at the play's genesis. Grete tries to find racism and misogyny in Jonathan's work; he responds by finding anti-Semitism in her questions. Jonathan is accused of being careerist, as if that would expose him as a fraud when it's perfectly possible to be a brilliant artist and a self-promoter.

More interesting are the subtle character portraits drawn of Jonathan, Patricia and Nick. Marty Lindsey does an apt job with Jonathan, whose obsession with his ethnic identity is frequently referenced but never satisfyingly illuminated in the script. All three characters have made their way to middle age with something short of joy and a foreboding sense of abandoning their hearts' desires.

With its second show at the Crossroads Theatre, Paragon is revealing the asset of a small, square space. Christopher Wink's farmhouse set is enfolded by both the art gallery and a (strangely unadorned) childhood bedroom.

Staging becomes problematic on occasion, as characters face upstage for long scenes, obscured to half the audience. By the end, though, even if we haven't seen their faces, we've seen their choices and the consequences.

bornsteinl@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5101

Sight Unseen

* Grade: B+

* When and where: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays through May 31, Crossroads Theater, 2590 Washington St.

* Cost: $17 to $19

* Information: 303-300-2210