Reviews: Poison Apple

Sean Galuszka’s low-key suspense drama is set in an apartment in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen. There’s a violent banging on the door, and Paul (Chris Sams) emerges from the bathroom, wearing yellow rubber gloves and carrying a spray bottle. He seems nebbishy, yet there’s something sinister about him. He carefully takes his time before answering the door. When he opens it, a hooded man bursts in. Paul sprays him in the eyes with the bottle. After a brief contretemps, it emerges that the stranger is Jerry (writer Galuszka), a friend of Paul’s female room-mate. Learning that she’s not at home, Jerry asks if he can wait for her. Paul grudgingly agrees, and proceeds to serve him tea. An increasingly edgy conversation ensues, and the appearance of a lethal looking butcher-knife and a saw hint at violence. Clearly more is going on than meets the eye, including a sexual attraction between the two men. By the end, the play proves to be a love-story as well as a tale of homicide. The play is a carefully controlled – perhaps too carefully controlled — exercise in suspense. Director Susan Lambert skillfully charts the gradual emergence of the macabre facts, and the two actors cannily play off one another to keep the tension building. SPACE 916, 916 N. Formosa Ave., Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru August 20. (323) 848-4561. brownpapertickets.com/event/185937. (Neal Weaver)

Photo credit: Susan Lambert