PHOTO CREDIT: Marti Gobel
The Roomates.
At first glance, playwright Jen Silverman’s scorchingly funny comedy, The Roommate, resembles Neil Simon’s classic The Odd Couple. In this case, it’s two middle-aged women who make plans to room together. In Renaissance Theaterworks’ production, Sharon (Isabel Quintero) is a divorced Iowa homemaker whose biggest thrill is her weekly book club. She puts out an ad to attract a roommate to split expenses and ends up with Robyn (Marti Gobel), a street-smart hustler from the Bronx, N.Y. Robyn is gay, vegan and a pot smoker, all of which are relatively new concepts to Sharon.
Needless to say, the women’s first meeting is an awkward one. In discussing her background, Robyn reveals that she formerly did slam poetry. When Sharon wants to try her hand at it, Robyn cautions her: “All first poems are bad—but there’s a great liberty in being bad.”
Sharon takes that advice to heart, in more ways than one. She transforms her life completely under Robyn’s hesitant supervision and guidance. Soon, the two of them are involved in all sorts of questionable enterprises. An enthusiastic Sharon proves to be a quick study, and the two of them grow closer as time goes on. They both discover that they are mothers, bringing a maternal touch to the conversation. When Sharon confesses that she doesn’t think her grown son likes her very much, Robyn retorts: “Our kids don’t have to like us. They just have to survive long enough to become us.”
The fact that their escapades all take place in Madelyn Yee’s naturalistic looking set makes them seem all the funnier. The set—just a kitchen and adjacent living room—is appropriately lit by designer Sarah Hamilton. A pair of props masters (Melissa Centgraf and Simone Tegge) work silently and efficiently in the half-lighting of scene changes. Their props suggest what’s ahead in the following scene.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
The New York-based playwright wrote the piece to give meaty roles to an underserved group—middle-aged actresses. She has constructed a judgment-free zone for the characters to find themselves, and they delightfully thwart the conventional means to find deeper meaning in their lives.
Under Suzan Fete’s capable direction, the two characters are a perfect fit for their roles. Gobel and Quintero are at the top of their game, thrusting and parrying like two fencing partners in a duel of words. The result is a definite must-see of the fall theater season.
Through Nov. 10 at the Studio Theater in the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit r-t-w.com.
