You don’t want to miss the new play by Itamar Moses — “Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used to It)” — running through March 9 at The Flea Theater in downtown Manhattan.
In a brisk 90 minutes (without intermission) Moses explores the nature of love — between actors working intently on shows and between “real” people within the context of drama — in a series of scenes that are alternately moving and witty.
Two of the episodes in “Love/Stories” are funnier than anything I’ve seen on stage or in a movie in recent weeks.
An office temp (Maren Langdon) gets the heave-ho from her boyfriend in a long phone call that is overheard by another temp (Michael Micalizzi) who carries a torch for the young woman.
Langdon turns the one-sided phone call into a virtuoso comedy bit that gets funnier with each pause and each passive-aggressive response to the unseen ex-lover.
The second riotous episode (right) is about miscommunication and backstage love in which an avant garde Russian director (Felipe Bonilla) answers questions at an American drama seminar. The Russian actress/translator (Langdon again) — who barely speaks English — suffers terrible embarrassment as we come to realize she is the director’s girlfriend and that he means to humiliate her.
Moses makes us stop and think about the mysteries of love and how naively we project fantasy virtues onto any potential girlfriend or boyfriend in a new romantic relationship, whether it involves neurotic theater people or ordinary office workers.
The play has it weaknesses — including a navel-gazing final scene in which the writer self-consciously decontructs the autobiographical nature of what we’ve been watching — but this is a dazzling display of sophisticated contemporary comedy powered by terrific acting.
The “Love/Stories” cast is made up of members of the Flea’s young resident company — The Bats — and all five actors get a chance to show their stuff. The two women, Langdon and Laurel Holland, are especially impressive because they get to play the alluring and mysterious objects of desire of the men played by Bonilla, Micalizzi and John Russo.
(The Flea Theater is at 41 White St. in Tribeca. Tickets are a steal at $20. Visit www.theflea.org for dates and times.)
