Bernard Litko (Charles Louwrens) is an arrogant, tale-telling, oil-slick of a man. As we settle into our seats, he shares a story of sexual misadventure with his best friend, Danny Shapiro (Dan Rivers), set in 1970’s Chicago.

The pace and chemistry between these two is a joy, and Louwrens looks, sounds and feels utterly authentic in his role. Even when he stumbles on a few lines (opening night jitters?) he picks up quickly and continues to deliver a really funny, well-timed performance.

His wolfish charm goes unappreciated when he tries to chat up an older hippy woman at a bar. Joan Webber (Tasha Wilcox) seems to be quite intelligent and assertive, but by the end of the encounter is as meek as a lamb.

Throughout the rest of the play this meeting never comes to anything, except to show that Joan was unusually subservient when it least served her. For the rest of the play, Wilcox creates a most irritating, aggressive and boring character. This must be intentional as Joan’s flat mate, Deborah Solomon, (Catherine Mchattie) is always reading whenever Joan is talking.

The romance that blossoms between Deborah and Dan is especially enjoyable in one bedroom scene in which the banter is quick, sexy and sweet. Mchattie’s Deborah is hard to read; does she really care for Dan or is he just an interesting diversion?

Although Wolfy Bernard is a disagreeable character, Louwrens brings such an enormous amount of charisma to the role that we are always looking forward to the moment that he is ‘back on’.

Bernard and Danny are allowed more depth through a few telling conversations and these are played with exactly the right amounts of awkwardness and aggression.

The set has a few realistic props, although I have to admit I was distracted by the sad echo of the whisky bottle and the way the actors cradled perpetually empty glasses. I don’t imagine Bernard settling for an empty glass for long. It’s making me thirsty.

The music was well-chosen, and picking up relevant action on-stage with spot-lighting or shifting light kept up the quick pace of the story. The in-active actors were cast into frozen shadow; it looked quite beautiful.

In the note from the director (Oliver Page), he says he hopes he’s done this play some kind of justice. If justice means we enjoyed it and laughed loudly more times than can be counted, then I would say he achieved more than he hoped for.
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