Having dealt in her earlier work with such hot-button topics as race relations (“Brownie Points”), senior citizenry (“Managing Maxine”) and religious identity (“Bluish”), with her latest dramatic comedy “Broke,” Atlanta playwright Janece Shaffer can now mark off the current economic crisis from her list of socially relevant issues.
Tess Malis Kincaid stars as Liz Eliason, a marketing executive who loses her high-paying job and ample pension when her company suddenly collapses. At 52, with a daughter paying full tuition at NYU, a nice but rather immature husband who's basically living off her as much as with her, and a mother in an upscale retirement home, Liz finds herself torn between the financial need to cut corners and the emotional urge to move forward with her life.
“It’s not about what we deserve,” Liz notes at one point. “It’s about what we can afford.”
James M. Leaming plays the husband, Jonathan. Although he owns a modest shoe store for kids, he’s mostly preoccupied with mastering Wii bowling on his new plasma TV or getting together with his buddies to practice in a rock band. Asking him to microwave dinner could be dangerous.
Late in the game, when things seem to be at their worst, Jonathan's idea of a solution is going back to college for a medical degree. It’s left to Liz to mention that might not be worth the return on their investment, especially at his age. And he wonders why she often talks to him “like I’m one of your employees.”
Shaffer doesn’t actually introduce the character of Liz’s mother, but their estrangement and Liz’s hard-luck upbringing become other topics of conversation.
Galen Crawley has the problematic role of the daughter, Missie. Her first-act scenes are detached from the rest of the action, spoken into a cellphone. When she finally comes home for Act 2, she exits one scene as a spoiled brat and enters the next all sensitive and dutiful.
In a welcome return to the stage following a long hiatus, the venerable Elisabeth Omilami covers several bases as Evalyn Rentas, a community organizer who runs a summer camp for inner-city children. Not only is the character ethnic (Puerto Rican) and lesbian, she’s also prone to older-and-wiser platitudes that speak to Liz’s personal predicament.
With so much on Shaffer’s plate, it isn’t surprising that “Broke” clocks in at an overlong two hours and 45 minutes. Nevertheless, director Jason Loewith’s Alliance production maintains a steady pace, and the central marital tension is ably and evenly performed by Kincaid and Leaming.
The show is lovely to look at, too. Between Jack Magaw’s elegant scenic design and Kincaid’s ultra-chic wardrobe (costumes designed by Janice Pytel), it’s somehow encouraging to sense -- or to imagine, at least -- that not quite every theater company in town appears to be roughing it.
Theater review
“Broke”
Grade: B-
Through Oct. 23. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays; 7:30 p.m. Sundays. $25-$30 (Sunday evening performances are pay-what-you-can). The Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage (Woodruff Arts Center), 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-5000, alliancetheatre.org.
Bottom line: Topical, if a bit excessive.
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