Dust

Dust by Billy Goda, now at The Westside Theater, an exciting adventure play, has a Broadway-level cast with Richard Masur and Hunter Foster as a sympathetic anti-hero with a past and an older, rich egotist flaunting his power. Helped by a terrific soundscape by Sharath Patel and lighting by Charles Foster, on a fine flexible set by Caleb Wertenbaker, as directed by Scott Zigler, the play is a thriller -- with jeopardy, romance (with the lovely, thin Laura E. Campbell), menace (from the scary Curtis McClaren) and succor and temptation (from John Schiappa in two contrasting roles).

The conflict between the ex-con, Foster, and a Trump-like Masur escalates, holding our rapt attention, spirals out of control to the weak point in the play -- the unsatisfactory ending. I won't tell you what it is, but there were many alternatives that might have included some irony, some invention, something more complex and satisfying. Go see, and you'll see what I mean.