Review: THE PAVILION isn't Grand at the Hub Theatre

The Hub Theatre's production of The Pavilion doesn't hide the play's main theme of the passing of time for its audience. The word, "time", itself is mentioned many times throughout the production. For its 10th season, the Hub Theatre brings back The Pavilion, written by Craig Wright, as a means to reach back in their own timeline to when this play was first put by company during the beginning of their formation. This production tries to go for the nostalgia (after all the play is set during a high school reunion) but misses the mark entirely. The Pavilion, directed by Kelsey Mea, is not the high school nostalgia love story that the play's description details. Instead the production takes a strange turn towards an unnecessary exploration of the existential which overpowers the love story between two former high school sweethearts at its center.

The Pavilion is narrated by a narrator played by Nora Acharti. Acharti opens the production with a monologue about the creation of the universe, which isn't quite what one would expect from a love story. Craig Wright's script doesn't really give the narrator any redeeming qualities. The presence of the narrator is off-putting as this character tends to distract from the main storyline rather than assist it along. Due to Wright's use of tangents in the narrator's monologues, Acharti's narrator is perplexingly hard to listen to and focus on. Acharti is at her best juggling the multiple roles as Kari and Peter's high school classmates. She takes on each character's physicality and speech so well that one is able to notice right away when she is switching from one character to another. She is at her peak as she takes on the minor role of Denise, a globe-trotting drug buster. The two lovers, Kari and Peter, in the story are played respectively by Helen R. Murray and Matt Bassett. Both Murray and Bassett haven't been on the stage in a while as they normally assume roles as artistic directors. Unfortunately, this shows as Murray and Bassett don't seem to quite have a grasp on their characters. Both tend to over-emote their characters to the point in which arguments between Kari and Peter become unnecessary shouting matches. While their acting isn't strong, there is a certain point in which Craig Wright's script doesn't lend itself to assist them in having characters with strong development. Wright's Kari and Peter are pretty two dimensional. It is hard to get a sense of how Kari and Peter were in their high school days together. We only get a small glimpse in a small anecdote about how Kari and Peter skipped class to go hang out by the lake. What Wright's script needs is more of those nostalgia stories of high school days rather than tangents about whether or not the future actually exists.

The production aspects of The Pavilion are half-hearted. The set's main piece, which is a corner of a deck-like structure, is moved across the stage frequently and doesn't quite give the audience a sense of place. It is often hard to tell when characters are inside or outside of the pavilion with the exception of a scene in which the narrator demands stars to shine over Kari and Peter. The set doesn't have any hints of a high school reunion. There are party lights, but that can only go so far to set the atmosphere. Music often plays during scenes as background music, but it becomes too loud during scenes in which it is more effective to have silence.

Overall, Hub Theatre's The Pavilion isn't the love story one expects.

THE PAVILION plays at the Hub Theatre - located at 9431 Silver King Court Fairfax, Virginia - through April 15, 2018. For tickets, please purchase them online.

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