Peter Hardy’s “Sally and Glen at the Palace” is a lovely valentine to the movies, a trivia buff’s dream and a sweet, coming-of-age story about friendships made in unlikely places.
Working at the front of the house of an art cinema in 1973, Sally and Glen have plenty of time to talk after the tickets are sold and torn. While patrons watch Luis Bunuel's “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” or Woody Allen’s “Bananas” behind closed doors, film-geek Glen educates sexually bashful Sally on Hollywood lore and other juicy topics. Glen plans to be an Oscar-winning director by the time he’s 30. Sally wants to hook up with the guy she has a crush on.
The second offering of the 2010 Essential Theatre Play Festival, the two-hander is a gently affecting tale that never blossoms into a full-out romantic comedy, but operates as a thoughtful meditation on issues of intimacy and trust. Hardy, the Essential Theatre artistic director who has been quietly writing plays for years, delivers a charming and insightful story about the awkwardness of sexual discovery, a topic that is so loaded with terror and shame that his characters can’t discuss it without a concentrated effort at distancing and detachment.
Though the love-among-the popcorn tale could use a little trimming and hasn’t quite reconciled some of its last-minute revelations about Glen’s offstage experiences with a Mrs. Robinson-type, you have to admire Hardy’s delicate approach and the winning performances of Kate Graham (Sally) and Jacob York (Glen). Perhaps a tad too soggy at the beginning, Graham captures the confusion of an Archer, Ala., native who is uncomfortable with what she sees in some of those X-rated films but can’t quite stop looking at them, either. As a smarty-pants film nerd who loves to titillate his young apprentice with his endless knowledge, York is a wonderful comedic actor who ultimately reveals his character’s tenderness and vulnerability. Graham and York are two young performers to watch.
As directed by Ellen McQueen, the show could do without its saccharine and distracting incidental music. Though the pace could be a little brisker, it does fit the mood of a fumbled, uneasy romance. Hardy has a habit of repeating the same jokes more than necessary, and his memory-play device more or less gives away the ending in the first scene. But he also finds a great deal of truth in his study of lost opportunity, unconsummated love and yearning.
For a few bucks, a movie can buy you two hours of anything you want: romance, adventure, action, drama. And then you get to leave and forget about it. Or do you? “Sally and Glen at the Palace” is about a relation that gets under the skin and won’t go away. It’s about living with all the things you wish you’d said — but didn’t.
Theater review
“Sally and Glen at the Palace”
Grade: B
Through Aug. 8. In rotating repertory with Rita Dove's "The Darker Face of the Earth" and Gabriel Jason Dean's "Qualities of Starlight." $16-$24. Essential Theatre at Actor's Express, 887 West Marietta St., Atlanta. Essentialtheatre.tix.com ; 1-800-595-4849.
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