Actors make bare-bones ‘boom’ shine

Olde English Productions' "boom" - about two people in a lab apparently trying to survive a post-apocalyptic world - is one difficult script, and director Gus Langley is up to the challenge.

Author Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's story clarifies the situation at hand in small increments.

At first, it seems we're watching nothing more than a routine Internet hookup between two strangers. Jules (Shane Cullum) strikes us as a shy, virginal eccentric, while Jo (Kirstin Maki) is a no-nonsense aggressive young woman who wants to cut the crap and get done what she's come to do.

Of course, the plot is much more complicated than that, but far better, good reader, for you to watch it all unravel in person than to get it spoiled for you here.

In addition, a woman (Candi Elaine) seems to be watching the play at the audience's left as if she were a light or sound engineer. But she begins jumping on the stage, commenting on and perhaps controlling the action.

Bad idea to leave before everything's sorted out.

Langley is able to suggest a sense of panic in a tight, barely lighted space so that we get a sense of claustrophobia without feeling claustrophobic. His biggest achievement is in the performance of Cullum.

The script dumps the action on him and he's got the chops to fight his way through.

Cullum's character can be regarded as nerdy, but the actor never falls trap to kidding the role.

Whatever humor there is (and there's plenty) feels born of character, rather than Cullum.

This inventive, unassuming performer is so natural yet theatrical that I always feel his skill is in danger of not being taken as seriously as it should.

Maki's a perfect foil as the neurotic woman who causes all of the man's plans to go astray.

The pair beautifully tune into each other's rhythms, and you don't get the feeling that those rhythms are superimposed. Their personalities just seem to naturally bounce off one another.

The 90-minute (without intermission) production, however, eventually grows monotonous. That's due in part, I think, to the script. But the director and actors haven't figured out a way to make their 100th line not sound so similar to the first. You can only hear someone onstage whining about suicide for so long before you want to say, "Whatever you do, just leave us alone."

And it's a relief on those few occasions when Cullum affects a different kind of voice that his character adapts to make a light-hearted point - any excuse for variation in vocals and attitudes are welcome.

Considering all the things that have gone right, though, it's understandable that this troupe has succumbed to some of the one-note sameness of the script's dialogue.

But "boom" remains a bare-bones production that's big enough to conquer the tale's epic sweep. It's a beautifully smooth pas de deux with two actors who know how to make conversation riveting.

They make their nutty people seem like they are the folk that walk among us.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat @aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.