Review: THE ENGLISH BRIDE
By Toby Zinman
For the Inquirer
"That's private."
"This is a situation in which there is no privacy."
That situation—investigated with many false starts and bogus clues—is the subject of Lucile Lichtblau's new play, The English Bride, directed by Deborah Block for Theatre Exile.
That situation is the interrogation of an Arab ( J Paul Nicholas) by an Israeli Mossad officer (Damon Bonetti). And the questioning of an English woman (Corinna Burns) who is/was the Arab's lover. And a flight cancelled. And a terminal evacuated. What is going on? Who did what? Why?
The English Bride requires a tolerance for ambiguity – not just patience as we wait to find out what's what, but a willingness to face the fact that the truth is only partly knowable and only some of the time. Dov, the Israeli agent, knows this all too well—a lesson that the play will teach us.
Eileen Finney is a barmaid from Leeds: plain, naïve and "invisible." She longs for a full life which she seems to find in a romance with Ali Said. As their relationship develops, they plan to fly from London to Israel so that she can meet his parents and they can be married (thus the play's Masterpiece Theater-sounding title).
The play takes place in two interrogation rooms in the airport; various other locales and events are acted out as they recount their lives in flashback—a meeting in the park, her job in the pub, visits from his friend (the Syrian the Israelis are after?) . There are declarations of love, protestations of innocence, confessions of shame. We are intrigued without ever being satisfied, having been duped and lured into various sympathies.
The three performances are, however, quite satisfying: round, full characterizations too subtle for stereotypes.
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Theatre Exile at Studio X, 1340 South 13th St. Through Dec.2. Tickets $20-34. Information: 215.218.4022, or theatreexile.org