THE THEATER MIRROR, New England's LIVE Theater Guide
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note: entire contents copyright 2009 by Beverly Creasey
Alan Ayckbourn’s PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES is having a smashing outing at Zeitgeist Stage Company (through March 6th). Granted, this is not your usual laugh a minute Ayckbourn. Like a tasty stew, PRIVATE FEARS takes time to simmer. Ayckbourn places each ingredient into the broth and lets it bubble away happily. When it’s fully cooked, it turns out to be a savory mélange of humanity and hilarity.
Six Londoners brush past each other in their separate, little lives, hardly noticing anyone else, coping as best they can…some, more outrageously than others. When their trajectories start to intersect, Ayckbourn has a field day with the collisions and you’ll have a grand time anticipating what might happen.
PRIVATE FEARS is Robert Bonotto’s play, hands down. He’s the consummate well mannered, mild mannered Brit, thrown a nifty curve by Becca A. Lewis’s prim, buttoned up secretary. Where Lewis treads and what that precipitates is simply delightful. Watching Bonotto squirm is exquisite fun. Hearing Rick Park rail off stage is another treat. Fine work, too, from Michael Steven Costello as a rip roaring drunk, drowning his sorrows at Bill Salem’s bar, from Chrintine Power as Costello’s increasingly intolerant fiancé and from Shelley Brown as a hopeful lonely heart.
The closer they all come together, the more you’ll relish Ayckbourn’s delectable plan---and director David Miller knows how to create delicious comedy. Bravo!