Is Edward Snowden Single?@ Second Thought Theatre
—Martha Heimberg
What is integrity? What does it mean to lead an authentic life? Can you ever trust a thief or a liar once you’ve caught them in the act? Is loyalty to a friend more important than fessing up to authorities?
Kate Cortesi’s 2021 comedy/drama Is Edward Snowden Single? is concocted of such heavy-duty questions, plus lots more pragmatic stuff, like how to ace an audition. The 2013 whistle-blower of the title, we learn right away, appears only as an imaginary friend of a hyper-insecure actor who needs someone to prop her up when she gets dumped, listen to her latest take on reality, and literally be her teddy bear.
Directed with verve and precision by Caroline Hamilton at Second Thought Theatre, the show is a terrific vehicle for the two hot and talented actors playing 20 roles (or so) with a sudden shrug, an accent shift, or a bad dude swagger. Add specs, a hoodie, or a big, shiny hair bow, and, like, wow. Costume designer Jasmine Woods and her swift cast can do a lot with just a necktie and a sock cap.
April (Alyssa Carrasco) and Mimi (Laura Lyman Payne) are besties since freshman year of college, and are now roommates in Brooklyn. April is a gorgeous model and actress, and Mimi is a cheerful, hyper-insecure wanna-be actor working in a family-owned coffee shop. Tough work, but Mimi is practically part of the family. She likes her Black boss and his chatty grandma, babysits his precocious little kid, and has an occasional back-room quickie with the boss’s sexy nephew, who works with her at the shop.
The friends run lines for each other, joke about the guys they date, and tell the audience to shut off cell phones, or not—if we just don’t care that a live show is going on right in front of us. There’s no fourth wall at all, and we’re inside their zany, hard-partying action. A guy in the second row is entrusted with a found note he’s told to stash until called on. At intermission, Mimi tells us to hurry up and pee, and April serves champagne to everybody in the 50-seat, steeply raked Bryant Hall next to the main Kalita Humphreys Theater.
We’re so intrigued by these two actors shifting roles on steroids, it’s a surprise when a seriously intellectual secrets trader like Edward Snowden (Ben Stegmair) appears on their television screen. “Not bad looking; I’d do him,” Mimi says. Then the image suddenly starts talking to her. Justin Locklear’s effective set and projection design includes not just a sofa-bed and stuff, but screens on both sides and overhead, plus see-through scrims so Snowden can step out of the TV and right into Mimi’s fantasy life.
When Mimi’s hotshot lover walks away from a white tablecloth table café and leaves her stuck with the bill, Snowden is right there, manipulating a teddy bear puppet and telling wounded Mimi she’s brave and good. Stegmair’s Snowden not only looks just like the real-life character, but his adorable teddy bear is to run off to Russia for. He even tidies up the room and tosses empty beer bottles when he comes to soothe sad Mimi. What a guy.
By the second act, the comedy gets a little crazy and a lot darker. April’s already told us about Mimi’s habit of glossing over the truth to cover her pain and misdeeds. No plot spoilers here, but all Mimi’s friends and lovers get miserably wound up in a white lie that keeps getting more complicated as it moves from character to character. I followed the gist of the plot points, but it’s easy to get confused about who’s who a few times, as the net tightens thriller-style, and we wonder which of these people is the guilty partier.
Carrasco’s April is as sunny and cloudy as her name, as convincing a badass hipster as she is a bright first-grader. April’s love for her best friend knows almost no limits, and that almost gives rise to Carrasco’s most revealing scene about the boundaries of even the closest friendship.
Payne’s muddled, smiling, can-do Mimi is not all me-me-me. She truly treasures April, and adores the child she babysits and talk to about beauty and kindness. Her Mimi is one of those people whose bread seems to always fall butter-side-up, but who you later learn only appears eternally optimistic.
Both actors are best in their fast and furious exchanges with each other, being the people they talk about and then sharply being themselves again. Is there somehow a dangerous aspect of this kind of make-believe? Who are these gals, anyway?
What can Mimi’s imaginary lover tell her about harboring a lie? “When you tell the truth, look what happens,” he says. When even loving April walks aways, Mimi turns to the audience, and in this immersive theater experience, appeals to specific people to come onto the stage to hear her out. All of us hear and see what happens when the light of honesty fills the stage. And that’s even before the house lights come up.
I still don’t know if Edward Snowden is single, but I sure liked the show and Mimi’s touching teddy bear take on him.
[Note: R language and simulated sex.]
WHEN: Through April 8
WHERE: Bryant Hall, on the Kalita Humphreys campus, Dallas
