Kara Sevda

by Now What Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland/New York City

Review by Bryan VanCampen

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Lisa Villamil’s Kara Sevda is a frustrating one-act because there’s so much good stuff inside it and the performances are so keenly felt. Celia (Tierney Nolen) and Rhys (Masa Gibson) are two bedraggled refugees sitting on a bench in the aftermath of nuclear winter, rioting and looting and horrors too unspeakable to utter. They are waiting for the results of a lottery that may save their lives.

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So why the bad romantic comedy “I hate you, but now I like you?” stuff that kicks off the piece? Much later, Gibson’s character tells Nolen about how his girlfriend was abducted and dragged away by her hair, to unknown and doubtlessly horrific ends. So why does the play open like we’re in a grotty singles bar? Doesn’t it seem like the stakes should be higher, that the characters might be a little more shell-shocked?

 

Villamil’s play is tackling an epic in terms of size; at 50 or so minutes, it feels like there is more story to tell in order to believably get Celia and Rhys from where they start to where the play ends.