Walking on Eggshells

They talk, we listen. Stripped down to basics, that's live theater. And in two new productions--the warm and funny Visiting Mr. Green at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas and the eerily prescient Humpty Dumpty at Second Thought Theatre (relocated to Addison)--the actors do the talking part so well that we in the audience barely breathe for fear of missing a word.

Both shows feature performances that improve the material they're working with. Like virtuoso musicians playing the heck out of practice pieces, the six actors in the two plays do masterful work that elevates the meaning of their connect-the-dots scripts. The result is a sly bit of seduction. We come out loving these plays--but it's really the acting that's taken our breath away more than anything.

Man, has there ever been a better run of good work on Dallas stages than in the past two months? The best actors, directors and scenic designers all seem to be employed in ways that play to their strengths and push them in new directions. Big and small, theaters are taking bolder risks in staging productions that appeal to theatergoers (and actors) looking for a bit of a thrill.

This streak of excellence has a galvanizing effect. Better shows at the established theaters, including recent sell-out runs of the musicals Wicked at Fair Park and Crowns at Dallas Theater Center, inspire theater-lovers to venture out to sample newer companies such as Second Thought. Darker offerings, including Kitchen Dog's Bug, Undermain's Margo Veil, Theatre Quorum's Honour or WingSpan's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (still running at the Bath House) appeal to the more effete types who wouldn't dare be caught waltzing into a commercial hit like Wicked.

It's good to see the seats filled everywhere. For professional actors and directors, the better the box office, the more opportunities there are for return engagements. Steady work keeps the top talent busy and helps them develop a following.

Among the best actors on any stage in town right now is Ian Leson. Anyone who saw Tracy Letts' edgy, riveting Bug--a show that created such frantic buzz that the KDT box office was turning away 20 to 30 people a night--will want to catch Leson in whatever he does next. Bug was an acting bonanza, and those lucky enough to see it witnessed Leson's explosive performance as a crack-huffing (and very naked) conspiracy theorist. Now he's showing off his versatility in other ways in CTD's Visiting Mr. Green.

A 1998 SMU theater grad who's been working nearly nonstop for the past few years at Kitchen Dog, WaterTower, Risk Theatre Initiative and the Shakespeare Festival, among others, Leson is the real deal--lithe, handsome and superbly subtle in comedy or drama. In Visiting Mr. Green, he's Ross, a young Manhattan junior exec whose life is disrupted after a near-miss car accident that was his fault. Sentenced to six months of community service, Ross must make weekly Thursday night visits to Mr. Green (Jerry Russell), the 86-year-old Jewish widower he almost mowed down.

This odd couple detests each other on sight. Mr. Green keeps strict kosher, including four separate cabinets for proper dishes and glassware. Ross is a nonobservant Jew who finds the old man's cluttered apartment more than a little stifling. Everything's just as it was before the sudden death of Mr. Green's wife of 59 years. It takes a few bowls of take-out chicken soup to bring the two men anywhere close to real conversation. "How are you?" Ross asks. Answers Mr. Green, "What's the good of complaining?" And so it goes for a good while as they dance around each other.

It's a well-crafted, if porous, script. Playwright Jeff Baron keeps shifting the focus. Sometimes he has a comedy about generational differences (Mr. Green doesn't even own a TV and thinks American Express is a train). Then he turns serious with discussions of persecution and tolerance. After Ross reveals that he's gay (just before intermission), Visiting Mr. Green obsesses on the personal sacrifices made in the name of religion. Being gay and Jewish doesn't compute for Mr. Green, who, it turns out, hasn't spoken to his only daughter in decades because she married a Gentile. Ross sets about getting father and daughter to reconcile. The play ends just like an after-school special, including a big, long hug.

Funny how predictability can be surprisingly satisfying, though. Visiting Mr. Green hits all the right buttons, including getting lots of laughs when it needs them and then moving its audience to sniffles in the final moments. Leson and Russell (he's played Mr. Green twice at Stage West in Fort Worth) relax into their roles and avoid becoming overly sentimental. Under the direction of Rene Moreno (who makes each moment count in everything he works on), the actors are sweet and generous, gracing the dialogue with the tiniest flourishes--a perfectly placed pause here, a well-timed look there. It's the art of acting at its finest.