All the laugh-out-loud humor throughout The Roommate tempts me to call it a comedy. But the change that always takes place in a good drama is real here, and it’s not just funny. The final ending is a mystery, led up to by several seeming endings, all of which would have served a run-of-the-mill domestic comedy. Still, Jen Silverman’s kitchen-table-contemporary take on a female odd couple is decidedly more of a delicious dilemma. Almost breathless, Jo Twist comes on like the stereotypical idea of an Iowa aging housewife as Sharon, slightly plump, friendly, talkative. In fact, she’s divorced, lonely, somewhat socially isolated, and – yes -- naive. Feeling an economic pinch, she’s decided to take in a renter, and Rita Rehn’s slim, sophisticated, single Robyn, in her 50s, might be a good match. Not. From the Bronx, jeans-clad Robyn is a vegan, a slam poet who’s quitting smoking -- but not the “medicinal herbs” she grows. She claims a varied job history. Why her move to Iowa? Less stress and she’d like “to grow things.” Secretly, Sharon wonders why Robyn secretes a box of identical pottery figures. Both women are separated from their grown children. Sharon’s son needs life in New York, bigger than Iowa City. Her phone calls don’t seem very welcome, perhaps because of her constant advice on them. She always seems to have homosexuality on her mind. Robyn gets strange calls from her daughter, whose name Sharon can’t seem to get straight. How the two mothers yet become friends -- even partners -- is the heart of the action. Not only does Sharon take to smoking pot. When Robyn reveals her past as a scam artist, Sharon absorbs the details and insists they form a cheating partnership to make money. Jo Twist wonderfully illuminates Sharon’s transformation as she accomplishes daring deeds. And does Robyn also take pleasure in their successes or does her enthusiasm for old exploits slacken? Is the effect reversion or revulsion? The couple’s interaction is funniest during their “business” meetings. When Sharon comes home from a date, the gals’ relationship gets out-of-office serious. Will a dance help or hurt? What about the morning after? Several possible endings. Under Gavin Cameron-Webb’s direction, not a single scene falls short of emotional depth. Jo Twiss and Rita Rehn make the perfect acting partners, giving each other support and sincerity. Author Jen Silverman turns stereotypes over and finds real individuals to share with us. I might wish the idea of Iowa City as a backwater town had been destroyed; the sophisticated writers who’ve come out of the University there are just one proof that Iowa produces more than corn. Lex Liang has produced a fine, workable kitchen under Mike Wood’s time-defining lights. Liang’s costumes define the women’s characters as well. There’s no mention in the program of a sound designer, but the brief music between scenes deserves honorable mention.
