Review: LOVE AND VINYL at KA-CHUNK!!! Records

For a variety of logistical reasons, immersive or environmentally-staged theatre, in which the audience is seated in the midst of the action, is rarely undertaken. Prior to seeing the show I'm reviewing, the only such performance I recall was in college at Salisbury University. An ambitious directing student chose a scene from Sean O'Casey's "The Plough and the Stars;" transformed the black box theatre into the tenement house where the play takes place and sat the audience members at various places therein.

Writer/producer Bob Bartlett has staged his new play "Love and Vinyl;" which takes place in a record store, in real-time inside an actual record store, specifically KA-CHUNK!!! Records (that's how they write the name) on Maryland Avenue, a street adjacent to the State House in Annapolis The play concerns, in part, the recent resurgence in popularity of vinyl records despite (or because of?) nearly two decades of the dominance of digital music downloading. Sitting in the cramped environs-at one point I had to pull my feet in so the actors wouldn't step on them-one remembers the thrill of browsing new records and understands why it's making a comeback. I enjoyed the confused expressions of passersby looking into the shop. But "Love and Vinyl" is more than a clever gimmick. The intimate setting is well-suited for a play that explores powerful questions of human connection. Middle-aged friends Bogie (Andy Brownstein), an accountant, and Zane (Carlos Saldana, who also directed), a social studies teacher, meet for one of their regular visits to a record store. Zane has recently been through a breakup, which happened "Last night, this morning, this afternoon, and probably tomorrow, too," and is struggles with deciding whether to fight for the relationship or move on. Bogie is an intellectual who struggles to express his feelings. The two encounter Sage (Rachel Manteuffel), the shop's proprietress. Initially annoyed with Zane and Bogie for overloading the fuse box and shutting down the electric stove in her apartment above the shop, she softens and allows them to stay. Eventually, the three reveal more about themselves. Sage, it becomes clear, has had a tumultous family and romantic life, and playing and DJ-ing music has been her means of coping with the world. Zane vacillates between urging Bogie to ask Sage out and threatening to do so himself if he doesn't. When Zane excuses himself to the bathroom to vomit from lovesickness, Bogie and Sage touchingly and cautiously open up to each other.

"Love and Vinyl" effectively combines drama and humor. A particularly hilarious sequence involves Zane and Bogie wistfully remembering their school days in their punk band The Clowns, with their dictum "Clown the World," which they at one point intended to tatoo on their buttocks, though they didn't really know what it meant. 

The cast fill out their roles nicely. To direct and appear in a show is no mean feat, but Saldona rises to both tasks admirably. He and Brownstein are throughly believable as long-time friends.  Mantueffel is wonderful as the initially abrasive, but ultimately human and relatable Sage. She and Brownstein acheive wonderfully awkward chemistry as their characters tentatively get to know one another. By the end of the play's 90 minute runtime, you feel like you know them all quite well, and like them.

Because of the venue in which the show is staged, "Love and Vinyl" can only offer ten tickets per performance. If you have fond memories of browsing at Tower Records, or if you want to see a fresh take on some engaging themes, you would do well to get one of them.

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