Directed by Sheila Groves, Romance inaugurates both Actors' Theatre's Bare Stage series and Bryson's promising career as a playwright. Meet Mr. Blissman, equal parts drill-sergeant, snake-oil huckster, and president of the Romantic Video Dating Service--the blustery ballast of this poignant comedy of amour and spiritual fulfillment. Through a series of monologues, Blissman shepherds wayward lovers Toby and Tina (a self-conscious speed addict and flighty ex-erotic dancer) toward union, aided by his buck-toothed charge Stu.
Bryson plays all the characters with aplomb, smartly guillotining the "talking head" that mars many a solo show and invigorating his performance with a physical vocabulary of subtle gestures and character notes.
Throughout, the play ponders, "How close can two people get?" The question is beautifully answered when Bryson performs a dialogue between the lovers, simultaneously portraying both characters, garbed in a half-Toby, half-Tina get-up. The results are hilarious, and Bryson's costume becomes a compelling visual metaphor.
Bryson is a sharp writer with a finely tuned ear for nuance. That gift shines brightly during a witty denouement that finds Stu confronting his shady mentor during a phone-in TV talk show. Here, Bryson converses with his own taped voice. Video monitors also provide interesting counterpoint to the onstage action.
Bryson's Romance provides exactly what Sonoma County's theater scene direly needs--new voices, homemade theater that will put the county on the map. Something is afoot here, and Bryson has taken the first step.
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