Theater Review: 'consider The Oyster' Shares Touching Love Story In Oklahoma City Production

A comedy whose improbable premise could have been played just for laughs turns into a touching love story and modest meditation on nature and gender as presented by Carpenter Square Theatre. The play, David MacGregor’s “Consider the Oyster,” begins with two seconds left in the Super Bowl in the Detroit loft apartment of Gene and Eliot, who think they’re about to watch the Lions lose again. Instead, miraculous things start to happen, when the wind helps Detroit kick a 67-yard field goal, and Gene’s girlfriend accepts his proposal (and pretzel ring), after which he literally “breaks a leg” on the coffee table. But the real miracle occurs, for better or worse, after Gene gets his leg set, and the oyster shell left in it to help the bone grow back starts slowly turning him into a woman, “just the way an oyster does!” How the men react to this untoward development is horribly funny and could been pushed to ridiculous extremes, with Eliot teasing Gene, who doesn’t want to tell his fiancee or anyone what’s happening to him. But for the most part, the two men play it straight, with Eliot, who is gay, tempering his teasing with the good advice that Gene mustn’t try to keep it a total secret, and Gene gradually, painfully, adjusting to his situation. In Friday’s show, Carl Lance succeeded in conveying a strong sense of Eliot’s caring for Gene’s ultimate welfare, under all his banter, making him come across, as Gene puts it in the finale, as a good if annoying friend. Tall and very masculine, in early scenes, yet gentle, Seth Vanderlinde did a fine job of making us believe in his slow, often awkward recovery of his sense of self, even as he is physically becoming more and more female. Supplying a superb comic foil was Erin Honious as Kay, a hard-edged personal injury lawyer, who became the mother of Gene’s fiancee after a few wild nights in Malta, and seems the most masculine of all, in some ways. Dismissive of the men for dropping out of law school to do what they wanted to do (becoming a chef and a teacher), Honious deftly exploited Kay’s comic reversal when she starts seeing dollar signs in Gene’s plight. Jessica Bisel made a wonderful “straight arrow” as the fiancee, dropped by Gene to spare her and keep his secret, who is more understanding than he gives her credit for, and re-unites with him in the touching last scene. Directed with great intelligence and restraint by Robert James Matson, the offbeat play, lasting about two hours with one intermission, is highly recommended fare, even for those who are allergic to shellfish. — John Brandenburg for The Oklahoman Read more on NewsOK.com