Oh, what might have been….

Don’t let the upbeat opening music fool you.  This is one intense table.

Three individuals arrive at a poker game.  One individual is earnestly present in spite of her current circumstances and two cannot escape their immediate pressures and distractions even though they all share a common goal – to be present together. 

Written and directed thoughtfully by Kevin T. Durfee, Chain Theatre presented Scenes of (Dis) Connections as part of Chain Theatre’s One Act Winter Festival #27 which took place virtually and in person at Chain Theatre in New York City.  Due to a blizzard, this program had to be delayed a week.  Click here for more information about the production and here for more information about Chain Theatre, which presents over 90 one act productions during its annual winter festival.

A small, floral covered table should bring friends together, but they cannot help but misunderstand each other.  In their own way, they all secretly plead for help, but cannot be heard.  Durfee uses communication breakdown in a clever way to depict each individual’s perspective through Mary McCarthy as struggling mother One, Griffin Garnett portrays struggling worker Another, and Hannah Wu depicts unemployed Alternative.  Athleisure, a business suit, and casually dressed respectively fittingly reflect their distinctive life perspectives.   They all aptly underline their distress as they long for the comfort of each other’s company, but cannot escape their various individual pressures.  

Confiding and connecting are so important.  Durfee was inspired to write this work through his own experiences meeting up with friends and everyone is so engulfed in their current circumstances, they catch up, but may lack genuine connection.  Durfee uses potentially life altering circumstances, but lack of connection is so easy to do in friendship or in any relationship, especially when even the lure of a cell phone is enough of a distraction from making a genuine human connection.  Listening, connection and confiding can lighten anyone’s struggles even when things happen.   

Scenes of (Dis) Connections provide just a snapshot of a friendship without a background story, but could be the foundation of a larger narrative.  In its brief time, it begs a few questions about these three interesting characters.  How they became friends, how they found themselves in these circumstances and how their friendship progresses would make for an excellent larger production. 

Chain Theatre presented Scenes of (Dis) Connections as part of Chain Theatre’s One Act Winter Festival #27 which took place virtually and in person at Chain Theatre in New York City.  Click here for more information about the production and here for more information about Chain Theatre.