Lungs

Play (2011)
A comedy by Duncan Macmillan

With Liz Hayes (W), Nael Nacer (M)

This fast-talking two character give and take only pauses a bit during its uninterrupted hour and a half, but transcends a lifetime in the process. The dialogue is relentlessly vivid and amusing, and, in addition to providing many moments of dazzle, in the end leads somewhere.

It starts as a discussion between a young couple about having a baby. The setting, hilariously, is at Ikea – just one of the many funny stunts of imagination present in this play. There is endless talk, at high speed, about whether and why to have a child, what the planet can sustain, and the concern with the carbon output of human beings, hence the name of the play. Given the speed with which the actors converse, one might well be concerned about their carbon output. Ultimately, the discussion about having a baby moves onward, and the play ingeniously uses its leapfrog technique to develop its perspective through time.

The two actors are really brilliant. They are constantly on fire and passing the dialogue ball so quickly and so well that it is sometimes hard to catch what they are doing.

I first noticed Nael Nacer when he played the Chico character in Animal Crackers at the Lyric Stage a couple of seasons ago. Earlier this year, he appeared memorably in the New Rep’s vivid production of The Kite Runner. He is an excellent actor and here, in Lungs, exhibits a full emotional range while maintaining throughout a fundamentally appealing gentleness of character.

Liz Hayes is also wonderfully compelling, moving across the spectrum of moods and expectations with fleet-footed assurance. One minute she is thrusting away Nacer’s character, the next moment she is drawing him in. The witty script, of course, prompts these rapid-fire changes of bearing and attitude; Hayes keeps right up with them, her timing impeccable and her alterations of affect completely believable.

The director, Bridget Kathleen O’Leary, recently oversaw the fabulously entertaining and manic production of Fully Committed at the New Rep, adeptly guiding its single star, Gabriel Kuttner, to deliver another breathlessly entertaining waterfall of dialogue while maintaining a heartfelt subtext.

There is almost no set and everything is created with imagination by the actors. It works marvelously well. There is a lighted model of something looking like lung tissue in the background, but it plays no active role, except for a change in illumination as the play progresses. All the additional production elements – lighting, sound – are subtle and unobtrusive, and work well to frame and support this extended, rapid fire dialogue and the emotional terrain its paints.

The play is entertaining and stimulating, but also thoroughly moving as it traverses its varied landscapes.

– BADMan