Ted (Tommy Heleringer, left) and Jamie (Ryan Garbayo) face a few obstacles in their relationship in This Space Between Us.
This Space Between Us contains the opposite of an 11 o’clock number. The nonmusical scene late in the play is a showstopper all right, though not in the rousing good sense. Rather, all action and dialogue literally stop while two characters stand over an air mattress as it inflates. It lasts ... well, however long it takes an air mattress to inflate, which may only be about a minute but seems a lot longer, since the audience has to sit there and wait out this unnecessary moment in a show that has already worn out its welcome.
Anthony Ruiz (left) plays Frank, a Cuban-born New Jerseyan with a sister-in-law who’s a nun (Glynis Bell). Photographs by Carol Rosegg.
In Peter Gil-Sheridan’s play about a 35-year-old gay lawyer who leaves his corporate job to work for an international aid charity—and his conservative parents’ less-than-charitable reaction to it—the first scene is barely more tolerable. For no apparent reason it takes place at a racetrack. Jamie, the lawyer, and his boyfriend, Ted, are getting together with Jamie’s parents, Debbie and Frank; his Aunt Pat, a nun; and his bestie/hag, Gillian. Debbie says of Jamie and Ted, “They’ve never been to the track before”; Frank remarks, “You love the track, Jamie.”
That is merely one of numerous times in this dreadful would-be comedy when dialogue contradicts other dialogue or is illogical for the characters or circumstances. The script is also full of labored jokes and clumsy lines that can’t even be considered exposition, because they’re not explaining anything worthwhile. Furthermore, the characters interact as if they’d never met before. Ted and Jamie have been together for five years, yet Ted is just now asking why Frank calls him “General Hospital” (because he thinks he’s overly dramatic, like a soap opera). Pat gives Jamie a Bible for his birthday; she’s been a nun since he was 10, so that sure seems like something she would have already done. There are plenty of other implausible behaviors, including when Jamie and Frank suddenly, in the middle of a conversation in English, start speaking Spanish when no one else present understands it.
“The characters interact as if they’d never met before.”
Gil-Sheridan is trying to say something with This Space Between Us about loving your family despite differences and wanting to do more for the world, but it’s all so superficial. Characters talk at, not with, each other. Personality quirks are poorly developed: It isn’t charmingly stubborn of Frank, who says Gillian is “like a daughter to us,” not to remember that she’s part Japanese, not Chinese—it’s inconsiderate. Political sides are represented by clichés: The liberals point out microaggressions and adore Rachel Maddow; the Republicans blame Obama and wonder why they can’t use racial epithets any more. Perhaps most glaring of all, you sense little emotion behind Jamie’s turn toward altruism, and even less in his and Ted’s romance.
The writing is so inept that at one point Frank shockingly pulls out a gun, yet that gun never goes off. (Hello, Chekhov’s gun?) Instead, it’s put away moments later, never to be mentioned again. What does get mentioned throughout the play, absent any meaningful context, is every name and issue that trended on Twitter during the past five years. Correction: during the five years preceding the past two years. Because this play that seems hell-bent on offering a timely reflection of life and politics—name-dropping everything from PrEP meds to Afghanistan to the Sarah Jessica Parker–Kim Cattrall feud—somehow never mentions the pandemic or Trump.
Sister Pat (Bell) is much more understanding toward Jamie (Garbayo) than his other relatives and friends.
Presented by Keen Company, This Space Between Us is Gil-Sheridan’s first play to get a full production in New York that he didn’t mount himself. Keen and director Jonathan Silverstein, also the artistic director of the company, come in with sturdier reputations—and higher expectations. Silverstein has helmed many of Keen’s acclaimed shows, but here he resorts to pretentious, amateurish flourishes like a news ticker running along the backdrop and occasional pauses mid-scene when the lights down on everyone except Jamie, who just stares straight ahead.
While the performances of Anthony Ruiz (Frank), Joyce Cohen (Debbie) and Glynis Bell (Pat) are lively enough to work in an actual (broad) comedy, Ryan Garbayo (Jamie), Tommy Heleringer (Ted) and Alex Chester (Gillian) give one-note portrayals void of conviction. And it doesn’t make sense that Jamie would be fast friends with vapid, self-centered Gillian, especially when she’s so hostile to Ted—who isn’t all that pleasant either.
Even some scenery and costumes (designed by Steven Kemp and Rodrigo Muñoz, respectively) are ill-conceived, such as the racetrack scoreboards remaining on stage even though all scenes after the first are set elsewhere, and Gillian’s attending a suburban family gathering in a dress you’d wear for upscale clubbing.
Keen Company’s production of This Space Between Us runs through April 2 at Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, with matinees at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets, visit keencompany.org.
