Editor’s Note: San Diego Jewish World theatre reviewer Eric George Tauber has moved to Cincinnati, but part of his heart still is in San Diego. He keeps up with the San Diego theatre community via the Internet, and thus was able to provide this review.
CINCINNATI, Ohio — The Roustabouts are one of San Diego’s smaller theatre troupes dedicated to bringing new work to the stage such as Phil Johnson’s solo shows, A Jewish Joke and Roosevelt: Charge the Bear. Their most recent premiere, gUnTOPIA was closed by the plague right after its first preview. Needing to do something to stay in the game, a critically acclaimed favorite, Margin of Error is getting an encore presentation online.
Ruff Yeager and Roxane Carrasco play Anton Myrvold and Sunita Savarkar, a middle-aged couple who are still playfully in love. Their home, designed by Sean Fanning, is the warm, inviting abode of an academic filled with books and natural wood tastefully accented with Indian artwork. Anton is a professor of physics who is up for a Nobel Prize for challenging the Theory of Dark Matter. Sunita is a political activist for women’s rights who divides her time between the US and her native India, getting into what the late Rep. John Lewis called “Good Trouble.”
Joel Miller and Kate Reynolds play Gray and Britt, the young PhD students who are both being mentored by Anton. They make a handsome couple, but there’s a fellowship that they both want.
“I felt like less and I wanted more.” -Will Cooper, Playwright
Kate Reynolds pulls no punches as Britt. Academics like to think they’re ahead of the curve on equal rights. But as a woman in a hard science, Britt knows better. Her boyfriend, Gray has an off-the-charts brilliance and work ethic that should sink the fellowship into his pocket, but Britt has other “attributes.” To realize our ambitions, we often do things we’re not proud of. But Gray shows us that he too can take the low road.
“A man’s character cannot be measured neatly. There is always a margin of error.” -Will Cooper
Ruff Yeager has a way of filling the stage with his presence. Quite full of himself, Anton pontificates as if he’s oblivious to the gorilla in the room. But even a Nobel Prize can’t knock the great chip off his shoulder. His brilliance and boorishness are a mask hiding the lonely, vulnerable boy underneath and we get to see the aching sadness in his eyes. As Sunita, Roxanne Carrasco gives a beautifully layered performance with charm, wit, humility, passion, compassion and deep cunning.
The last line of the Book of Ecclesiastes warns us, “For G-d shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Ecc 12:14, Hebrew Bible) Margin of Error is a night when “dark matters” are brought to light and Judgment comes with a heavy hand. Raise a glass to Rosina Reynolds for her deft direction. She knows how to give words their weight and how to play the heaviness of silence.
The Roustabouts’ Margin of Error can be viewed online through Aug 23rd, 2020 by visiting this website.
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Eric George Tauber is a freelance writer based in Cincinnati, Ohio.