Four

One of the choice bits in David Lynch's delectable Hollywood mindwarp, "Mulholland Drive" is where a director remarks upon the completion of audition scene between a young, would-be starlet (Naomi Watts) and an older, grayed once-lothario (Chad Everett): "Very good. It was forced, maybe, but still...humanistic." Christopher Shinn's remarkable 1998 play Four succeeds in being the very opposite. It is humanistic simply in how un-forced it is. A lovely piece of work centering on American conventions and how everyone is affected by them, Four is the best acquisition Manhattan Theater Club has made in ages, leaps and bounds more dramatic and interesting than the rancid Stage I offering, Further Than the Furthest Thing, which shares this play's quietness but has absolutely none of its boldness or depth.

Taking place on the 4th of July in 1996 in Hartford, CT, Four represents its quantity of characters: a shy, slightly affected 16-year old white boy named June (Keith Nobbs), who is first seen prepping for a date with the much older Joe (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), an imposing black man who is also a literature scholar, and a married father, who has left his bright young daughter Abigayle (Pascale Armand) back in native Boston, to care for his never seen wife, who is suffering some kind of personal malady that (wisely) goes mostly unexplained, but points to agoraphobia. Abigayle is left to care for her but decides to accept the offer to go out with Dexter (Armando Riesco), her white-Latin friend who has a crush on her. The play has a theme of exploring differences in the two pairs, not just by way of color, but of attitude and experience. Joe and June (named for his intended birth month) share stories of gay panic amidst a movie and parking-lot fast food, until June nervously accepts Joe's invitation to a hotel room. Abigayle confronts her feelings for Dexter, whom she resents for his seemingly put-on street jive (Riesco does a letter-perfect riff on Michael Rapaport, but with tons more charm than expected) while he feels she is too structured and articulate at times. ("You talk like a white girl," he remarks at one point.)

Four is no polemic about accepting differences. The play is fervently funny but understands the creaky logic of opening yourself up to somebody. The Joe/June scenes, in particular, have a definitive, creepy-crawly charge to them simply in how well playwright Shinn and director Jeff Cohen understand the fears of skirting around intimacy, especially in conversation. Whitlock and Nobbs are magnificent as the unlikely duo, the former always finding fresh ways to reinvent his character throughout and the latter, an excellent young performer, making his nervous teen wholly credible without overstating. When Joe calls him genuinely ôbrightö in one scene, you truly believe it because of Nobbs' sensitive, superb portrayal. And Riesco and Armand are a terrific pair; their scenes also have the spontaneity of real life laced with a palpable romantic tension, wonderfully realized by these two eye-opening and very attractive young actors.

If the production has a glitch, it's that it's maybe a little too quiet. Naturalism is highly appreciated at any point and time, but sometimes the dialogue is hushed to the point of inaudibility (or while characters eat), which is a shame because the words are so wonderful. Otherwise, there is hardly a more thoughtful or gratifying play to be found these days; one that feels honest with every nuance and intention and never plays its characters (or you) for a fool. And from a playwright who was 23 when it was mounted...writers twice his age should be so lucky in their achievements.