The fascinating thing about human relationships is that they can be played out in a multitude of ways and about half of those possibilities can be entertaining.
“All in the Timing” is a play written by David Ives that focuses on this concept. The play is essentially a collection of 14 one-act plays, but it is the director who decides which acts to depict and in what order.
Theater company Theatre Unleashed attempts to explore two emotional extremes of comedy and tragedy.
By showcasing “All in the Timing,” Theatre Unleashed shows comedy at its best. The play’s director, Carlos Martinez, explores the humor and craziness of human interactions in six particular acts which range from typical moments in life to the bizarre.
However, the charm of “All in the Timing” is that it starts off confusing you to the utmost extreme and ends with you embracing its absurdity and randomness. The play explores human relationships by exaggerating the outcomes of human interactions in realistic situations and sometimes in crazy ones.
For example, its first act, “Sure Thing,” depicts a man, played by Jacob Smith, meeting a woman, played by Erin Frisbie, in a coffee shop and shows the various things both can say to screw up their chance at love. Signaled by a bell, the scene is replayed over and over again with different lines until both characters can finally get their conversation right.
Immediately, however, the play throws you off by switching to another act that has absolutely no relation to the previous one. Following “Sure Thing” is the act “Words, Words, Words,” where three chimpanzees (played by Alex Yee, Sean Fitzgerald and Carolyn Morse) are part of a human experiment to see if putting them in a cage long enough with a typewriter will result in their writing William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
Yet what seem to tie these two plays together are the humor and the observation of human nature. “Sure Thing” is about the right timing as well as the right words when it comes to sparking a new relationship. Meanwhile, “Words, Words, Words” can be seen as chimpanzees acting exactly like humans when oppressed.
But the great thing about “All in the Timing” is that these acts can be interpreted in so many different ways. What you can see about one act and its meaning is entirely different from the way the person next to you sees it.
Ultimately, the actors themselves are what work for the play. All of them have strong stage presence, chemistry and an ability to make their characters realistic despite the insane situations.
The actors take on more than one role throughout the play, and each is able to transform into new characters easily.
A personal favorite of mine is the act “Universal Language,” about a con artist named Don, played by Joe Neuhaus, who creates a universal language to get money, and a stuttering girl known as Dawn, played by Frisbie, who wants to learn the language in order to bond with others and get rid of her stutter.
A blend of humor and cuteness, the two actors shine together as they carry on throughout the act speaking in a made-up language. Of all the acts, “Universal Language” may be the one that is most sweet and touching, commenting on humanity’s need to find companionship. Despite being spoken in a completely nonsensical language, its meaning is understood.
Still, there are two minor setbacks that keep this play from being an all-out hit. First, the play’s opening and closing scenes are two halves of one act, “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread.”
This act is perhaps the most boring out of the play, perhaps due to its portrayal of the most “normal” human interaction in contrast to the quirkiness of the other acts. Essentially, “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread” is about a man named Philip, played by Smith, who goes into a shop to buy a loaf of bread and sees a woman he used to love, played by Morse. Nothing really comes out of the scene.
The second flaw is that the play’s transition from act to act is a constant repetition and jumbling up of the lines in the opening scene, including “Philip Glass buys a loaf of bread,” “Do you know her?” and “I used to love her.” Often, the transitions and mix-ups of words and lines will produce absurd phrases, and other times they produce enlightening ones. Still, the repetitions sometimes seem so drawn out that they border on annoying.
Despite this, “All in the Timing” is all charm and smiles. There are so many themes running through the play and trying to connect them to each act seems almost impossible. In the end, to truly enjoy “All in the Timing,” you need to sit back and take in its hilarious antics and shrug off any confusion that may surface in your mind from time to time.
In the end, take from the play what you will, keep a favorite act to your heart and leave the theater with a huge smile on your face.
E-mail Ta at jta@media.ucla.edu.