Arts & Entertainment Compass

Playwright F.J. Hartland’s “Across a Crowded Room” was my first stop at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at the American Theatre of Actors in New York City. The production starred Actors Equity Association members Anne Pasquale and Keith Herron. The piece was directed by Valerie Adami-Juhlin and was produced by Break A Leg Productions in conjunction with the leadership of MITF. 

The blessing and the curse of a festival length show is its short length: an amuse-bouche where you get “just enough to make you mad.” Despite its brevity, the plot of “Across a Crowded Room” gives you plenty to chew on. The cast also has teeth: between them they’ve founded their own production companies, performed in the world’s most prestigious theatre festivals, and landed on your TV screen in shows you’ve actually heard of. 

Anne Pasquale, as the unnamed leading lady here, pulls on our heartstrings with a beautiful soup of glee, laughter, concern, and despair. Her portrayal of grief and loss was thoughtful, human, and authentic. My favorite part was her incidental singing, which felt like she truly loved the music she was quoting. 

Keith Herron gave a bravado performance, filled with quiet masculine confidence. From the minute he awkwardly crossed the playing area (using the unusual setup of our studio theatre to his advantage) to ask her out on a date, Keith made me smile with his self-depreciating quips, asides, and jokes that only a man of a certain age would crack. His smooth and insightful portrayal of his character reminded me that a man is best viewed through the eyes of those he loves. Keith gives strong everyman energy, and he reminded me of my own father, who like the character was also taken away from us too soon. 

“Across a Crowded Room” starts as a “Meet Cute” moment for a seasoned couple who has already been around the block. Ditching an awkward party together, this journey evolves into a beautiful series of mile marker moments along the road of their life together. Instead of digging into specific scenes, the author chooses to go about telling our story as if we’re in a truck hurtling down the highway, and these big life moments are the sign posts whizzing past. We get to hear about some really exciting and fascinating things that are happening in our characters’ lives, but only in passing. I wish these “rising action” developments had been written as vignettes or scenes instead of quick updates or summary. As soon as we get settled, the scene changes again. Maybe that’s the intended effect: to feel that life is moving too quickly, out of our control. When the author dug into the question of hindsight (knowing what you know now, whether you would play it all the same way) is when we got to the meat of the meal. As a little “slice of life” play, I was surprised at how quickly we ran out of pie. This might be the only play I’ve seen lately that I thought could have run a little longer: not necessarily with extra scenes or words, but by taking a little extra time to tell us the story. 

All told, this is a beautifully written piece of theatre. You’ve got two more chances to catch it (Thursday 6/18 at 6pm and Saturday 6/20 at 6:15pm) and I hope that you do.