Warm lights fall on a minimalist set, fitted with a couch, a door, moving boxes, and an office desk. Out walks a couple, a young man and woman, holding groceries. “It started with an argument about bags…” they say. The production that follows is a rolling river of emotion that engulfs viewers with a story of love, betrayal, and heartbreak.
A Kind of Sad Love Story, performed by the Laney Theater Department and written by Jeffrey Lo, follows the story of a break-up between a man named Andrew (Jesse Savoey) and a woman named Emily (Maya Wooten). After a seven-year relationship ends in a tumultuous fight, the two twenty-somethings struggle with their choice to end things and face life without each other again.
The play employs a variety of clever storytelling techniques that keep the show exciting and interesting. Andrew and Emily’s combined portrayal of imagined scenarios, unreliable narrators, inner monologues, timeline jumps, and the breaking of the fourth wall all contribute to a captivating narrative about whether or not the relationship is worth saving.
But there’s just one thing.
Few were witness to the drama at the 5 p.m. performance of A Kind of Sad Love Story on Nov. 6. Only eight people were in attendance.
Despite the mostly empty theater, the emotional investment of the attendees was apparent. Plenty of gasps and laughs could be heard between lines. Despite the small crowd, the actors performed with maximum energy. The production maintained a fervor for the small crowd that would have sufficed for an audience of a hundred people. Savoey was charismatic and energetic, with a strong control of tone in conveying subplot, while Wooten’s particular grace and vulnerability added a complicated element to her calm and collected character.
The supporting cast performances also showed a great dedication to the craft of performance. Shakon Miller Jr. delivered a realistic and hilarious performance as Andrew’s best friend. Isiaha Malveaux-Hughes played a number of different characters including a boss, a smarmy date, and a romantic mechanic with gusto and energy.
Department Chair of the Theater Department, Michael Torres, grapples with the lack of knowledge most Laney students have of the department, which he said impacts turnout.
“We’re trying to get more people to come in for the 5 p.m. shows but we do okay at the 7 p.m. shows,” Torres said just before the show. “Too often I have students say they didn’t even know we had a theater here.”
Torres began the show with a short Q&A, while also giving some background information on the department in general. In his 20 years at Laney, Torres estimated he’s directed or produced about 50 shows for the department.
Almost all plays that are performed by the Theater Department are new plays written by local playwrights. Lo is a Filipino-American playwright and director from the Bay Area who currently works as an Associate Producer of Casting and Literary Management for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.
“We like to work with modern playwrights because they’re inclusive,” Torres said before the show. “Older playwrights who are more famous aren’t as inclusive to people of color.”
He characterized Lo’s characters as satirizations of the American canon of plays such as The Crucible, A Streetcar Named Desire, and the Taming of the Shrew.
The play concluded on Nov. 8, but students will have more opportunities to view performances by the Theater Arts Department which produces two shows every year. This production was free to view with a suggested donation at the door of $15 – a small price to pay to continue to support Laney’s gifted theater department.
