Shooting Star

This is the last week for Trinity Rep's current production, a short, two-person play clumsily titled Shooting Star. Don't hold the name against it. If you're at all interested in theater - even if you're not -  this is the one to see. It's the kind of production that proves the whole point of theater - that a good play, done well, makes for a much richer experience than any movie, even 3-D IMAX.
Set in Trinity's smaller downstairs theater, with a sparse set that evokes a deserted, snow-bound airport terminal, the intimate production tells the story of former college sweethearts who collide back into each other's lives while trapped at stopovers during a winter storm. A slightly shaky start soon revs up into a play so involving that I could have sat on those folding chairs all night. When it ended, my companion - not exactly a theater buff - immediately declared his willingness to see it again. I would, but with only eight peformances left, it seems greedy. Everyone should get to see this play. Or at least, everyone older than 30 or so - the play is full of references to the 70s, as well as the poignancy of change and broken connections to the ones we love, all of which might fall flat for younger viewers.
The play is by Steven Dietz, whom I'd never heard of before but is apparently a prolific modern playwright, and the two actors who comfortably command the stage for the 80-minute production are a real-life married couple, Kurt Rhoads and Nance Williamson. The show's directed by Fred Sullivan Jr, whose productions are ones to watch. (For instance, he directed Much Ado About Nothing, about to return to the Gamm, which far outshines its companion Shakespearean production, Romeo and Juliet, also staged at the Gamm and directed by Tony Estrella.) Sullivan's pacing and the two actors' chemistry make for belly laughs and tears, while Williamson, in particular, is captivating. From the moment her character takes the stage, we were completely engrossed in getting to know her. It was well worth the time.