Theatre in Review: Lean-To (59E59)Near the end of Lean-To, a woman erupts into a thoroughly justified rant that jolts this sleepy play with a few volts of electricity. Playwright Stephen Sheffer has thrown together three hikers on a nature trail somewhere outside an unnamed city: Xavier, a queer bartender and outdoor enthusiast; Yvonne, a chatty, anxious-to-please lawyer; and Zed, her cagey boyfriend of four months, a therapist. Without going into the details -- the script has so few surprises that it doesn't seem right to spill its single big twist -- the trip doesn't go as planned, and things soon look bleak for Yvonne's future with Zed. At the moment of crisis, Yvonne, a weary veteran of the dating wars, lets loose. She's not a fool: "I'm not new at this game," she says. "How could I be? I'm a woman on planet Earth playing the game of love, for Christ's sake." Trying yet again for a relationship without a drastically short sell-by date, she admits to the "constant thought spiral of whether or not this 'match' is 'right'." With a trace of bitterness, she envisions turning this latest disaster into an anecdote for her friends ("Oh, that's a hilarious story, Yvonne!" "Trot that story out again, Yvonne!"). "What a sad world," she adds. It's a gorgeous passage, a complete disavowal of the whole damn pursuit of love, ending in a melancholy declaration of independence. Larisa Oleynik, who plays Yvonne, precisely catches her character's frustration over this fresh indignity fate has handed her and her resigned acceptance that, most likely, nothing better is coming her way. Sheffer also gives Zed a nice solo turn, detailing his globetrotting early years (born in Jamaica, followed by stays in Canada, the UK, and, finally, the US), where, at school and summer camp, he became just a bit notorious for "my famous anger at the time coming out through every fiber of my little body. I didn't know then what I know now, that this was expected of me in a way. I was playing into an expectation even though it felt real. That this anger was prescribed." Joshua David Robinson has a deceptively casual way with a wounding revelation, making it clear that there is more to Zed than initially seems apparent. But the run-up to these revelatory moments is exceedingly dilatory, filled with idle chit-chat, camping tips, and whimsical touches, including an impromptu chorus of "Baby Hit More One More Time" (The latter, I suppose, establishes the characters' bona fides as millennials.) Early on, Sheffer quietly drops a bombshell to indicate that all is not well with Yvonne and Zed, but he lets the news sit there, doing surprisingly little to build up tension. Also missing is a sense of texture; the playwright is still learning the trick of salting his text with bits of information that give one a sense of his characters' lives. Xavier, for example, is almost a total blank, and John Alejandro Jeffords must work overtime to make him anything more than a catalyst to Yvonne and Zed's troubles. Given the dawdling first half, there isn't much that the director, Jesse Jou, can do; inordinate amounts of time are spent on Xavier changing his shoes and socks, Yvonne and Zed setting up their tent, meal preparation, and a messy, morning-after cleanup. Yvonne holds forth at length about the relative virtues of sleeping mats versus inflatable pads, useful information if not exactly electrifying dramatically. If you're not really, really into camping, Lean-To may feel like a very long hike. Still, Jou helps out when feasible, for example, staging an amusing toothbrush challenge between Yvonne and Zed. Oleynik can invest the most mundane line with a vein of unspoken feeling, and Robinson exudes an easy irony that explains Yvonne's attraction to Zed. Jeffords does especially well in a scene featuring Xavier handing out advice to the endlessly self-deprecating Yvonne; one wishes Sheffer had given him more to work with. Connor Gallerani's set keeps the characters at close quarters, which serves the play well; it also has a slightly primitive quality that may reflect the director's vision, budget constraints, or both. Elaine Wong's lighting plausibly tracks an afternoon-into-night trajectory. Krista Grevas' costumes feature the layered approach one would naturally take when hiking in autumn. In many ways, Jennie Gorn's sound is the key design element, evoking an outdoor environment with birdsong, crickets, and crackling flames. The trouble with Lean-To is, er, structural; its best speeches are still looking for a fully realized play to contain them. Still, 59E59 and co-presenters New Light Theater Project and Pendragon Theatre are doing the right thing in giving Sheffer a showcase. He has a real feeling for some of his characters, and he may be a play or two away from a breakthrough. And here's hoping Yvonne finds a man who lasts. --David Barbour 
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