 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
A pointed look at relationshipsBy PETER SMITH
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- Granted, spike heels aren't as compelling a theatrical metaphor as, say, Chekhov's sea gull, but we live in a more superficial age. That said, the play Spike Heels, at Ybor City's Silver Meteor Gallery, is an entertaining look at the way modern Americans mess up each other's lives trying to figure out what they want. Andrew and Edward, a teacher and lawyer, are interested in the same woman in their own ways. One hides his lust behind an air of erudition; the other, well, doesn't. The two are as essentially alike as two people so different can be. Edward (Jim Wicker), the lawyer, is a jerk, knows it and makes no bones about it. Andrew (Ned Snell), the teacher, is engaged and at least as big a jerk as Edward, and may even leave Edward in the dust, but thinks he's above all that slippery sex stuff. Because no one is above all that stuff, he's not only a jerk but a hypocrite. In short, these are two typical specimens of boobus Americanus, easily recognizable from a distance, yet capable of subterfuge at close quarters. In Theresa Rebeck's play, the quarters get very close indeed, and two pretty smart women get taken in for a while. The central female figure, Georgie (Teresa Elena Gallar), who owns the spike heels of the title, is a smart, tough, noisy street kid who wants Andrew. The outwardly prim Lydia (Katrina Stevenson) has him, and Edward, too. Edward thinks it's all lust, Andrew thinks it's all mind, and the women seem to be swimming in their wake, Georgie still in her heels. Spike heels are a more compelling metaphor at a second glance. They give power to and take it from women and men, sort of a zero-sum game in clothing form. Being sexy (as Georgie is) is power, but a limited kind, and being above sexiness (as Lydia is) is also a kind of power. But both exist here only in men's eyes. As played by Stevenson, Lydia is a beautiful woman who has chosen to ignore her beauty, and Gallar's Georgie is impossibly sexual and seems unwilling to use her brain. As they find their way to a balance, the hapless men are left behind. Jo Averill's direction is not subtle, but neither (at first glance) is the play. Snell is rapidly becoming one of the area's best actors, making Andrew impossibly dense yet somehow sweet. Wicker has a great deal of fun playing an unenlightened cad. Even at their worst, these are likable guys. Stevenson's Lydia comes across as a complicated, real person, and Gallar not only finds the power in spike heels but in herself and who she is. This is an explicit play but full of understanding, wit and the sense that everything can be all right if we just find our balance, even on spike heels. REVIEW: Spike Heels continues through Aug. 19 at Silver Meteor Gallery, 2213 E Sixth Ave., Ybor City. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 5 p.m. Sun. $7 general, $5 seniors and students with ID. (813) 417-4555.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the wire |
