TAPE by Stephen Belber (Red Tape). At the Lennox Contemporary Theatre (12 Ossington). Runs to August 30, Tuesday-Sunday 8 pm. $15. 416-888-4772, tapetoronto@gmail.com. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Anyone going through a trendy quarter-life crisis will find lots of relevance in Tape, Stephen Belber’s dark exploration of late-20-something fuckupdom. For everyone else, it’s a solid psychological mystery giv en a strong production by an emerging group of artists.
Vince (Benjamin Blais), a petty drug dealer and all-round loser, meets up in a Michigan motel room with his former high school friend Jon (Joe Dinicol), now a hot young di rector who’s in town premiering one of his films at a festival. The arrival of a figure from their past (Carrie-Lynn Neales) tears down the characters’ illusions and triggers themes of guilt, morality and culpability.
Director David Tompa makes effective use of the intimate Lennox Contemporary Theatre space, carefully choreographing the action in the (uncredited) set that’s so real-looking, you can almost smell the mildewed bedding. He also paces the show well, letting the pauses in Belber’s dialogue build tension.
Blais, onstage mulling over Vince’s situation before the audience sits down, grasps his restlessness, anger and frustration, and delivers his lines with a manic comic edge. And Neales does a surprising and watchable turn as a woman who’s learned how to negotiate different levels of power.
Only Dinicol disappoints. Movie-star attractive, he often seems awkward onstage, his voice shrill and posture stiff. It’s the play’s most thank less role, but a subtler actor could have added shadings to this cru cial third of the triangle.[rssbreak]
