"Ages of the Moon" at Anton's Well Theater Company

Still playing catch-up on all the shows I've seen this month....

This will be fairly quick, both because it wasn't a big, long play, and because it has already closed its run.

I feel like I need to make a confession here, which is that I think this is the first Sam Shepard play I've ever seen. He's quite the Bay Area Theater icon, so it seems unlikely, but I actually don't think I've ever seen a Sam Shepard play on stage. That's a little weird.

Anyway, I had read a couple of articles and reviews of this production, and really wanted to see it, but being pretty much only on weekends and during the holiday season, it seemed I was not going to make it. Luckily, I ran into Don Wood, who is one of the two actors in the cast on a Monday night, and he mentioned that they had added a special Tuesday night show the next night (the 13th) specifically so that a lot of theater people who might otherwise miss it could come. OK! I'm in...

The Play

This is not, as noted above, a big play. It has a total of two characters, and sometimes they don't even talk much. And that's fine, because when old friends sit and don't talk, it can be informative to watch what they do instead. So Ames (David Cramer) is having a bit of a crisis, so he calls his old friend Byron (Don Wood) to come visit and talk. Byron comes, and when we join them, they are really busy, sitting on the porch and not talking.

In the course of the play we learn that they are truly old friends, who have known each other for something like fifty years, though they haven't talked in quite some time. And as they rehash parts of the past, it becomes clear that they don't really see eye-to-eye about a lot of things that have (or haven't) happened over that period.

It's a bit of a ramble, aided by whiskey, that ends up reflecting on life and loss and friendship and memory and perhaps ultimately, connection. Why are we here? Where are we, anyway? And why are we together, after all? All sorts of good questions in this play.

The Production

Anton's Well is a small, rather new company, that has only been around for a couple of years and has only a handful of productions under its belt. Their stated goal is to produce challenging plays that engage the audience, and if this is any indication, it could work.

The set is small, if only because we're in the little theater room at the Berkeley City Club, but the intimacy plays into the intention of the play here. Everyone in the house can see and hear everything, and the nuances of the physical performances are quite literally right in your face. Two guys, two chairs, a little table, and some glasses. Drink, contemplate, interact. That's about it. But the quality of the interactions, spoken or not, is the essence of the play.

It probably helps that Cramer and Wood have been friends in real life for many years, so their interactions feel pretty natural. Cramer's mercurial swings nicely offset Wood's stoic, almost detached responses. Each is a distinctive portrait, and each needs the other to make the relationship work. Nice work, all around.

I will definitely be on the lookout for more Shepard and more from Anton's Well.