[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Art Crush LA’s To Each Their Own, written by award-winning playwright Travis Williams, directed by Brooklyn Sample at the Atwater Village Theatre from April 17 to May 4.
Gritty crime dramas are a gift to theatre. I don’t understand why there are not more in fact. Atmosphere, stress, betrayal, anger and ultimate disaster are so perfect for dark theatres and sitting with strangers to discover something. New together.
To Each Their Own is a brand new play written by the rather wonderful Travis Williams, told with a tenderness that belies the subject matter.
Three old friends are drawn together to rob banks. They are all struggling, all feeling abandoned by the world and in need of their piece of some kind of pie. Doug and Benny own a dive bar, Doug and Bailey are old flames and haven’t seen each other for years, since Doug had to skip town after crossing the wrong gang. So they decide to trust each other, even though for two of them, who used to be lovers, trust is hard to find. It’s kind of a risk it all or die trying scenario. They had nothing to lose, or so they all believed.
There’s a lot of intrigue and subterfuge. A lot of twists and turns and an awful lot of lies…which makes for an intense, and very funny story with characters as big as you would imagine them to be!
The dialogue is snappy, but not as edgy as it could have been, which I really liked. This is not a story about people who hate each other. It’s a story about regret and lost chances. Wrong turns and heartbreaking consequences. These three have known each other since they were kids. They know who they are and why. Which makes for a deeper melancholy. Truer, higher risks taken, and a fall that means all the more.
To Each Their Own is a brilliant play. The characters and performances are brutally real and effortlessly played by some very fine actors indeed.
I believed them, which is always the point, isn’t it? I believed they were willing to risk everything to have the hope of something more, and when inevitably they lost, the loss was poetically catastrophic.
I have to mention the set. A bar. Simple enough, you might imagine. However, when I walked into the theatre, it felt like any dirty bar in any small town. You could smell the smoke and the beer and taste the defeat and sadness. Brilliant!
Brooklyn Sample directs with what felt like a feather, but I am certain it was not. Invisible direction is always the mark of a master…bravo!!
I highly recommend To Each Their Own. Atwater Village Theatre is the perfect setting for this lonely, funny, poignant play about a group of people just trying to get by, hoping for more, even if the hope of it is all they know they might ever get…and who can blame them. The world’s insane and rapidly imploding. I’m not certain I wouldn’t take the chances they do myself. To Each Their Own in the zeitgeist, that’s for sure!
The Team:
Jason Madera, James Lemire, Tabitha Trosen, Travis Williams and William Wilson.
Produced by Blind Toe Productions and Erin Coleman.
Tickets:
https://www.artcrush.la/event-list
Where:
Atwater Village Theatre
3269 Casitas Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90039
When:
April 16 (Preview) – 8 p.m.
April 17 (Opening Night) – 8 p.m.
April 18, 19 – 8 p.m.
April 25, 26 – 8 p.m.
April 27 – 6 p.m.
May 2, 3 – 8 p.m.
May 4 – 6 p.m.
www.artcrush.la | blindtoe.com
NoHo Arts To Each Their Own listing
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