THEATER REVIEW- Coffee

Awkwardness is too often used broadly and without proper homage to the different degrees and types. Sometimes awkwardness is separated by shades of uncomfortable blushing, amount of pointless fumbling, or perhaps the texture of its silences. James Campbell’s delightful one-act play indulges itself in all of these ranges of awkward moments…and even invents some new ones.

Coffee is charming, clever, and woven deftly by its praiseworthy simplicity and comedic timing. The launching concept is fairly unoriginal: two strangers meet and exchange quips when they share an early morning coffee. One is an ambitious career woman (Isabelle Adam) arrived entirely too early for her “breakfast meeting,” the other is an enigmatic stranger with a nut allergy (Misha Crosbt). But, though “boy meets girl” is a cliché, it turns out to be endearing when done well.

Both actors were excellent; Adam’s has especially mastered the subtleties of the craft that make her character convincing between lines of dialogue without launching the role as mere caricature. Comedy performances often miss the potential in a straight-delivery, while opting for the absurd; Coffee strikes a nice balance between improbable and utterly believable. The humor is amplified by the sparse dialogue, allowing each planted image a chance to take root; when asked whether it is all, or merely some, types of nuts that cause his anaphylactic shock, Crosbt’s character admits a hesitation to “play Russian Roulette with a bag of mixed nuts.”

My only recommendation would be to tighten the script by eliminating the clumsy and excessive attempts to inflate the character with additional third dimensional depth. One example of this was a never explained referenced to a dead muse that brought a quick flare of anger to the stage which appeared out-of-place among the rest of the lighthearted material. If this emotional outburst had a point other than showing the actor’s range, it was sadly lost on me.