Providence

photo: Ian Crawford

Two couples (one platonic, one married) have a brief chance meeting in an airport terminal: the men are seeing the ladies off to a flight that goes horribly wrong and takes their lives. In the aftermath, the men form an uneasy connection with each other rooted in loss and grieving. The play skillfully follows their increasingly meaningful friendship while simultaneously depicting the ladies on board the doomed airplane and, as if that wasn't enough for a playwright (Cody Daigle) and a director (Ian Crawford) to have on the plate, then alternates these scenes with flashbacks of both couples leading up to the fateful flight. It's evidence of Daigle's ability with structure and Crawford's talent for concise staging that the play's events seem to flow naturally and easily with complete clarity, and it's always a pleasure to encounter a new writer who has come up with a real dyed in the wool play that makes use of possibilities unique to the stage. (The payoff here is a quartet where the two couples' scenes play out simultaenously). However, the flashback business that Daigle has written for the platonic couple rings false and overdramatic, a minor disappointment in a play with so many otherwise true and lovely moments about grief. (Not to mention welcome moments of mitigating humor particularly from Aly Wirth, an actress who can get a knowing laugh out of a single withering look at a stewardess).