Scenes From a Marriage: A Theatrical Time Machine

The best thing about playwright John Kolvenbach’s Reel to Reel is that it goes back and forth in time to unspool the saga of a 55-year-long marriage. To do so, the one-act play enlists four thespians to portray Maggie and Walter. The mature wife is depicted by Alley Mills (the mom in the long-running ABC sitcom The Wonder Years, produced by my cousin Bruce Nachbar), while the elder Walter is played by another stage and screen veteran, Jim Ortlieb (whose credits include working with the renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company). The younger incarnations of the couple are brought to life by Samantha Klein and Brett Aune (the playbill suggests that offstage these two are real life lovebirds).

Eschewing strict chronological order, Kolvenbach’s script intercuts scenes of the two couples at various points in their lives. This inventive technique may make for quite creative storytelling, but the time traveling aspect of Reel to Reel also makes it harder for audiences to follow the 90-ish minutes of flashbacks and flash forwards. To compound matters, the play fails to provide more exposition and doesn’t cover all of its bases.

The collage-like one-act show may strive to paint a portrait of a marriage that lasted more than half a century, but in doing so, it’s not exactly clear what the characters’ jobs are. Maggie seems to be some sort of performance artist who splices sounds together in her presentations (which the play’s title appears to refer to). I don’t have a clue what Walter did for a living. At one point during one of Walter’s birthdays, Maggie attempts to screen a (presumably 8mm) movie believed to have been long lost, which Walter had made years earlier, then disposed of. There’s little if anything about the making of this film that I recall, and it’s never explained why Walter shot it, nor why he refuses to watch it on his milestone birthday. Inquiring minds want to know, Mr. Kolvenbach – theatergoers aren’t mind readers.

In preparing to scribble this review, I noticed in the playbill that Reel to Reel is supposed to be set at New York City. Funny, I grew up in Gotham and at no point during this overlong production did I for one second ever remotely get the sense that the action occurred in my old hometown.

These are matters related to clarity but I also found a premise of the plot to be inherently incredible. The younger Maggie comes across as a complete flake, if not quack. She glimpses Walter – who never seems to be an extraordinary individual – at a party and simply decides to move in with him and spend her life at his side. Maggie pursues Walter and goes home with him – without knowing anything about him. Now, I totally believe that infatuations can be triggered by (mostly physical) attractions, along with short-term relationships and cohabitating. But true love is based on getting to know one another, building up trust, and so forth – not to mention rental, real estate and other mundane factors. I don’t buy that Maggie’s pursuit of the nondescript Walter would lead to a 55-year marriage, although I suppose it could happen. Despite their origin story, the actors did however persuade me that they were a loving couple devoted to one another.

The alternating time (if not space – really? It’s NYC?) works well and as said, is the most interesting thing about this dramedy. It’s poignant to witness their love and enduring relationship sprawl across six decades. And it’s great that in their eighties they’re still playing hanky-panky – nice to know those orgones are still popping. The performances are naturalistic and convincing, deftly directed by Matthew McCray, a veteran theater helmer. The set by Evan A. Bartoletti yet again displays what the wizardry of a scenic designer can render on the protean stage of the Matrix’s intimate theater. As much of the time-hopping Reel to Reel takes place during the 1960s and 1970s, the play includes clever prerecorded selections of some of that era’s beloved music (sound design by Jeff Gardner, with assistant sound designer Andrea “Slim” Allmond) played over a sound system.

It’s also delightful to see Alley Mills (who co-starred in the soap operas The Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital, for which she won an Emmy) treading the boards again; her numerous stage credits include co-starring with her late husband Orson Bean in Noel Coward’s A Song at Twilight at the Odyssey Theatre. Interestingly, the actor who played Mills’ Wonder Years husband, Dan Lauria, is co-starring in Just Another Day, also a love story about aging mates (which Lauria wrote, too), that premieres August 30 at the Odyssey. Ain’t life wonderful when you have partners to share it with?

The HorseChart Theatre Company and Rogue Machine co-production of Reel to Reel is being performed Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. through August 23 on the mainstage of the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, L.A., California, 90048. For reservations call ​(855)585-5185 or go here.