Play By Kieron Barry
Directed by Michael Massey
Produced by Zoe Allen
RECOMMENDED
Review by: Odalys Nanin
Sherman Oaks, CA (The Hollywood Times) 9/6/24 – Spy for Spy moves like a playlist shuffling scenes every night and who chooses the sequence of scenes? The audience! The sparse set contains only a blue chaise with two small pillows and three different size trunks. These set pieces are shuffled around establishing new scenes on stage.
Tonight’s first scene is, “Seven Kisses”, Sarah, an uptight lawyer played by Meegan Holaway, is at a private party on New Years Eve. She’s trying to avoid her ex-girlfriend who left her for a gal named Rita. She’s outside on the patio where she meets Molly, played by Andrea Flowers. Molly is a bartender and also an aspiring actress. She also works as a caterer, in the film industry hoping to be discovered. These two are as different as night and day. Sarah is the older wiser, somewhat jaded attorney, and Molly is younger and eternally hopeful with joie de vivre that makes you want to kiss her. This scene is cleverly written creating an anticipation of when will they kiss? The dialogue is full of sarcasm, setups and punchlines. Both actresses deliver their punch lines with impeccable timing, and you can’t help but laugh. When they finally do kiss, and it’s not just once, but, seven times, you’re hooked. This is by far the best scene in the play.
The second scene,” A Wedding”, they randomly meet at a chapel for the wedding of a mutual friend after they somehow became disconnected on New Year’s Eve. This is their second chance meeting, or so we think but not. Sarah the clever attorney manages to get herself invited to this wedding with hopes of running into Molly. They reconnect and Sarah confesses to Molly that she’s in love with her. Molly is hesitant but Sarah decides to include her in her will so that once Sarah dies Molly will be taken care of. This scene is a great set up of what’s to come as the play unfolds.
The Third scene, “Sex & Death” is funny & tragic. The element of sexual problems arise as the older Sarah is just not into it and Molly is hot and ready for love making. Bed death in a lesbian relationship does occur after a while but these two manage to end up making love.
The fourth scene, “Clearing Out Closets” they are separating and dividing their belongings to go their separate ways amicably. There is a sense of great sadness mixed with sarcasm until Sarah feels something is wrong, she says, “you are sick, aren’t you? Are you dying? “… Molly answers “yes, I have cancer.” Sarah’s tenderness towards her lover upon hearing the news is heartfelt. She tells Molly that she will be ok and that she will be there for her through it all. Molly declares, “I’m vain, I don’t want to be ugly around you.” Sarah consoles her in an embrace as the scene closes.
The fifth scene, “The Farm” this scene is more about their differences and conflicts with their families.
In the final scene “Heirlooms”, Molly is sick in bed and Sarah is by her side with a tragic sense of doom. They talk about death. In one of the saddest lines, Molly said: “We are dying in the wrong order. You were supposed to go first, you are older.” This is a powerful scene where the order of death and life has truly been shuffled around. Molly asks, “Who will you be with after I’m gone?” Sarah then delivers one of the best lines of the night, “There’s no substitute for young skin.”
To me this play is worth seeing many times over. It pulls fiercely on your heart strings with an in-your-face rawness that makes you want to cry, scream and laugh.
Tragically funny and romantic. A must see!
Limited Run: Sept. 5 – October 10, 2024, Thursdays ONLY at 8pm Admission $24-$38
Online ticketing: https://www.ticketleap.events/
An interview with KIERON BARRY the witty playwright of SPY FOR SPY running at the Whitefire Theater.
I had a chat with Kieron Barry about his play “Spy for Spy” and his inspiration for writing it.
He said, “I wanted to write a play about a couple that dies in the wrong sequence. Naturally the couple had to have a difference in age. I also did not want to write about an older man with a younger woman, it has been overdone. So, I choose to write about an older woman with a younger woman who simply fall in love but are not at all compatible or right in age. It’s truly an abstract play where the scenes are randomly chosen by the audience. The question we all ask is what does it mean to Love someone?”
I said to him, you mean Le Je ne sais quoi? I don’t know why but something about this person pulls me in and I want to be near that person. Even if we don’t have much in common. The role of Molly the young aspiring actress, “I wrote in order to honor the unselfish craft of being an actor.”
Kieron revealed that in order to write you have to have time to think and that is an invisible type of work. “Because it might seem that I’m not doing anything, but I am because I’m thinking.” That’s so true, I told him. I’m a writer myself and I completely agree with what you are saying.
A writer must think, figure things out and do research before you sit down to write. Sometimes you don’t know when you’ll be ready but suddenly at 2:00am you hear that inner voice that tells you to get up and start writing.
Kieron Barry is a wonderfully gifted writer from London who now lives in Ventura County, CA in an Artist’s Building dedicated to housing only artists. The perfect retreat to work invisibly. We connected as artists, and he made me laugh throughout our interview.
He said, “I wanted to create a traveling play and all you need are Good Actors that are well lit in front of a black curtain.”
Bravo! Kieron, that’s exactly what you have created.
