The Love Talker in NoHo at the Hub

When you walk into the eerily lit, long, narrow theatre space and you hear the crickets chirping, you can bet that there is going to be no good going on. When you take in your surroundings in the high backed, old time, carnival style chairs and you see the ivy crawling up the walls, the veils hanging down from the ceiling, the bunk bed area high above the stage, and the hollowed out tree stump on the floor, your mind goes on overdrive and you can bet that there is trouble in the wings.

This is the scene at the play written by Deborah Pryor and directed by Ben Kusler, "The Love Talker," which is running now through November 17, 2007 at The Hub Theatre (5425 Lankershim Blvd. N. Hollywood, CA 91601) This play is not new; in fact it was first produced in The Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Play Festival in 1987 and had a brief run at The Hudson Guild Theatre, Off Broadway in Manhattan in 1988.

Much of the language in this play seems a little dated at best; this is a Huck Finn yarn told in a 21st Century world. It seems, in this modern world that not many of us are that accustomed to entering an unfamiliar, anonymous theatre and be expected to suspend our disbelief long enough to enjoy the show. This is the sad truth to this particular staging.

Unfortunately for this play we are all too well aware of everything that we see and with actors entering from behind the audience and players coming and going from all points on the stage, it was tough to get my bearings enough to appreciate the play before me. At just over an hour this play zips by; with two of the four players setting themselves up on either side of the battle over the presence of the other two, you can see right away the ball of yarn begin to unravel.
Becca White and Olevia White are Gowdie and Bun; sisters, in the play only, and the older Bun has a dark recollection of the past when their mother engaged with a man known only as "The Love Talker." Younger Gowdie was only a babe at this time and can't even recall their mother at all, really; so she is ripe for the pickings of this dubious monster when he makes his unwelcome return.

Alexi Sean Anthony is The Love Talker and he smoothly glides all around the stage in a come hither manner that is both alluring and repulsive; Amanda D'Angelo plays The Red Head; a character, much like the Furies of the Ancient Greeks or the Witches from Shakespeare; she foresees the drama before its unfolding and recklessly yaps about it.

With able setting from the design team, steady direction of an unwieldy text by Mr. Kusler, and all around solid performances; particularly so from the sisters, whose roles were a little more developed and their struggle more clearly defined, this is a play that is definitely worth further scrutiny. Some who see this may not think that it is much more than a ghost story. However "The Love Talker" reminds us that the most basic human elements; lust, revenge, jealousy, freedom; are no where more compelling to watch than when blood ties become strained.

The Love Talker plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 3PM through November 17.
www.plays411.com/lovetalker
www.goldstarevents.com