MENDACITY
The first and best of the four one-acts, Six Neighbors Talk About Lies, outlines a juicy little suburban scandal through six brief monologues. Three couples frozen in portraits of wedded bliss come alive one by one to confess fears, sins, and fantasies. These range from the innocuous (a wife admits that her husband is a disappointing substitute for a white knight) to the venomously bored (a man caught in bed with his neighbor’s wife finds the whole experience tedious). Director Kerry B. Riffle lets the talented ensemble members do their jobs with a minimum of fuss. The monologues sing with the passion of being thwarted, pursued, or abandoned. Disgruntled couples in the suburbs isn’t a fresh theme–but the piece is honest enough to be engaging and short enough that it doesn’t exhaust its own good will with a lot of suburb-bashing.
