“Anything beautiful only lasts a very short time,” says playwright Joshua Harmon in his play “Skintight.”
The line captures the heart of the production at Island City Stage in Wilton Manors that was extended an extra week and now runs through Saturday, June 29. As the second to last show of the season directed by artistic director Andy Rogow, “Skintight” touches on love in all forms with profound insight and hearty belly laughs. Per its usual modus operandi, Island City has chosen a play that explores queer love while digging deeper in a more universal level that everyone can connect with. The production has moments where audiences can laugh out loud, gasp, and eventually tear up as familial relationships come to a head.
Jodi’s (Suzanne Ankrum) middle-aged husband has left her for a 24-year-old, and her friends have deserted her for the new couple. Furthermore, she’s approaching her self-proclaimed “sell-by date” of 50.
Jodi retreats to a swanky townhouse owned by her father, Elliot Isaac (Steve Schroko).But rather than the comforts of home, she instead finds her aging father’s new live-in boyfriend, Trey (Jeff Brackett)—who is 20. In his new comedy, Harmon brings neurotic family drama to the forefront as father and daughter contend with the age-old questions of how to age gracefully in a world obsessed with youth and where does love fit into it all?
Rogow is tasked with the difficult job of staging a play with a cast of six. In an ideal world, they would live in a more spacious venue than the stage provides at Island City in order to get the larger than life feel that someone like Isaac would provide. With a wide but shallow stage – and a beautifully modern and sleek set designed by Ardean Landhuis – Rogow makes due, choreographing each scene so that the playing area doesn’t seem too cramped – and while it isn’t always successful as characters walk around one another in sometimes awkward shuffles, that’s easily overlooked as the moments when they are planted tend to have longer lives.
Rogow’s direction particularly shines on the “simple” couch scenes where a lesser director might try and create movement or add unnecessary action instead of just letting the script do its work. Rogow allows the actors to connect through the dialogue and silences.
Harmon’s script makes the actors’ job an easy one by giving them a natural and authentic voice that gives the sense of listening in on a private conversation. With Harmon mixing the right amount of the comedic and thoughtful, the dialogue demands attention – with moments of heavy conversation sprinkled with comedic commentary, funny one liners and sexual jokes.
“Skintight” dives right in with an uncomfortable conversation at the top with a tense standoff between father and daughter. Ankrum takes charge as Jodi Isaac, a woman struggling to come to terms with her ex-husband leaving her for a much younger woman, holding on desperately to what is left of her family. Ankrum gives a captivating performance that teeters between spiraling out of control and staying grounded in concern.
Schroko plays the loving but distant father and with his 70th birthday around the corner, the patriarch houses his family for the weekend, revealing not only his newest partner, but also unearthing hidden tensions between father and daughter.
The relationship that is probably the most complicated would be the intergenerational one between Elliot Isaac and 20-year-old Trey. Last seen in “Wicked Child” at Zoetic Stage, the show marking his second of this South Florida season, Brackett dives deep into the personality of this youthful, destructive force known as Trey. Up until now, he had no prospects, and nothing to his name until he met Elliot, and while the family might not be welcoming him with open arms, Elliot has given him a place to call home. As Trey tries to fit himself into the family dynamic, we get the pleasure of watching his blissfully ignorant attitude parade around the house, with Elliot balancing the roles of lover and father. It’s a strange dynamic that Schroko and Brackett handle with great comical ease.
Schroko starts off his Elliot at what feels like a permanent 10 with nowhere to go as his delivery stays in flat attack mode. He has the character existing in his own bubble, which disconnects him from the other actors. He eventually is able to settle into the character.
Rounding out the family is Benjamin Cullen (Daniel Barrett), the 20-year-old son of Jodi, a sassy and spoiled queer man who has a sense of entitlement that is made blindingly obvious by Barrett’s spot-on performance. “Benji,” as his mom calls him, has been away studying abroad and is back for Elliot’s birthday with a massive chip on his shoulder caused by the distance between him and his grandfather. Barrett conquers the role as if it was made for him, lounging comfortably in the words with each sassy remark, bratty huff, sarcastic eye roll, and sexually charged silence.
On the sidelines of the family circle are two people under Elliot’s employ – Jeff (Louis Pedraza) and Orsolya (Laura Argo). Jeff being a former lover of Elliot, and Orsolya a Hungarian immigrant, the two operate as the outside perspective of this upper-class family. Always there as a presence, sometimes in silent servitude, and sometimes with witty one liners. Pedraza and Argo might only have short lived moments, but they make their presence known with their tight and quick precision of movement and delivery.
While this story is about love, beauty, family – those heartfelt and somewhat heavy themes don’t take away from the comedy infused within each scene.
Rogow and the cast lift the energy and story with laughter while grounding them in the reality that surrounds the meaning of love, how the word and concept exists in different places and in different realms.
To Elliot, love starts skin deep, to Jodi it’s about family, Trey sees it as caring about someone no matter who they are, and all these things are explored with finely tuned comedy and philosophical late-night conversations on the couch.
While the characters appear to exist on the surface with each of them finding little ways to annoy one another whether it be by making inappropriate jokes, talking down to the other or by simply having tantrums – they each struggle through a form of trauma and are still learning to cope with it, no matter their age. It’s all very relatable.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Skintight” by Joshua Harmon
WHERE: Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors
WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m., Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday. Through Saturday, June 29.
COST: $40, $45, $55
INFORMATION: 954-928-9800 or https://www.islandcitystage.org
