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    Theatre Review: Evolution’s Moving But Jumbled Poz

    The regional premiere of Michael Aman’s Poz opened Thursday in a glowing production directed by Greg Smith at Evolution Theatre Company.  It’s a noble play, stuffed Dreiser-full with threads of legitimate societal complaint but also with a beating heart. The blood flowing through its veins is an understanding of exactly how real people react. So much of Poz is so remarkably good that it’s disappointing when the pieces don’t cohere into a whole as good as its individual parts.

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    The action of Poz takes place in New York City in 2003. We meet Edison (Matthew Sierra), a 23-year-old actor working for a restaurant at the beginning of a battle with leukemia he doesn’t have the money or strategy to fight. Edison’s lucky enough to live in the same building as one of his favorite cult actresses, Catherine (Kathy Sturm) who he slowly wears down into friendship. Catherine’s ex, Maia (Pam Welsh-Huggins) sets the wheels in motion for Maia’s ex-husband, Oscar (Mark Phillips Schwamberger) to possibly assist.

    James Harper (as Robert), left to right, Matthew Sierra (as Edison) in Evolution Theatre Company's production of POZ.  Photo by Jerri Shafer.
    James Harper (as Robert), left to right, Matthew Sierra (as Edison) in Evolution Theatre Company’s production of POZ. Photo by Jerri Shafer.

    The bitter irony of these assumptions comes to the fore when Oscar reveals his AIDS charity can’t help someone who is HIV-negative. This roadblock leads Edison to seek out a positive lover and finds, coincidentally, one of Oscar’s dearest friends, Robert (James Harper). Arthur, an angel (Christopher Storer), presides over the action, slipping between Maia’s sense of auras and spirits and the dueling guilt of Robert and Catherine.

    That sounds like a lot of material for one play, and it is. Even at its substantial length – the night I attended ran almost 2 hours 20 minutes – it never quite gets a firm grasp on its deeper issues. Dealing with characters who have 20-plus years of interwoven backstory, except for the ingenue pov character Edison, leads to an abundance of exposition before Poz ever gets to its central conceit. This setup is watchable because the characters are delightful and intriguing but it never gets past feeling like the audience is peering through the first 50 pages of an exquisite novel. The cinematic quality of the pacing amplifies this state of suspension; dividing the action into bite-sized scenes, even tautly directed by Smith, creates a stop-start rhythm that serves as an irritant more than it drives suspense or intrigues. Worse, that theatrical equivalent of “cutting away” gives the impression the play is pulling its punches, ducking the hardest questions. 

    One of the two places Poz shines is its characters. There are extended scenes where the characters just talk that I never wanted to end. Welsh-Huggins’ Maia and Sturm’s Cathy not only elevate their characters from being cartoons but they imply the way molten love can cool into an unbreakable friendship. Schwamberger gives the most nuanced portrayal I’ve ever seen from him, and while the parallel story with his character’s father dying left me scratching my head; it gave us more time with that charming character. Harper has one of the most demanding roles of the play, what could be the putative villain: an HIV-positive, self-described Nixon Republican more than twice the age of his love interest. That Harper gets the audience in his corner, and does so deftly, with deceptive ease, is remarkable. Christopher Storer’s angel is an avatar of peace with the world, a conscience and a reminder of loss, but never goes Jiminy Cricket; I could have watched him for hours.

    The other key element the play works brilliantly is milieu. I first started spending a lot of time in NYC around the era of the play, and it magnificently captures that grief hangover still throbbing two years after 9/11 and an AIDS crisis stabilizing but still killing people. It grasps a desperate hunger for life and passion that didn’t always get an appropriate outlet. Poz earns every laugh it gets, not through threadbare pop culture references – though there’s a hilarious recurring gag about Catherine playing Mary Todd Lincoln in a Carrie-style Broadway flop – but through creating a world where we can taste the air.

    The performances and direction are so strong, and the hand-in-glove evocative work of Nitz Brown’s lighting and Ruth Luketic’s sound, that it’s almost easy not to notice when the play doesn’t add up to the home run the material deserves. Evolution should be commended for staging a regional premiere of new work by such a fascinating voice, but I can only honestly recommend this for people genuinely interested in New York at the turn of the millennium or big fans of these fine actors.

    Poz runs through August 13 with performances at 8:00 pm Wednesday through Saturday and 2:00 pm Sunday, August 7. For tickets and more info, visit Evolutiontheatre.org.

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    Richard Sanford
    Richard Sanfordhttp://sanfordspeaks.blogspot.com/
    Richard Sanford is a freelance contributor to Columbus Underground covering the city's vibrant theatre scene. You can find him seeking inspiration at a variety of bars, concert halls, performance spaces, museums and galleries.
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