I saw a play last night I wish I had written. This happens every once in a while when I go see a new work. I marvel at the work the playwright did. I wonder, "How will I ever know how to do that?" That's how I feel about Collin Doyle's new play Let the Light of Day Through now playing at Theatre Network. The script is so elegant and tight and funny and honest and it feels effortless as we experience it. I don't want to say too much, because much of it's brilliance comes in the way the story is unwrapped. We start in the now of Chris (Lora Brovold) and Rob (Jesse Gervais), a couple in their thirties and then swoop along with them as they portray each other's parents and co-workers and themselves when they were younger. We experience their growing relationship thinking we know how it will go because we have already met them in an older form. It begins with a lot of laughter. A LOT of laughter. Brovold and Gervais have great chemistry and play off each other so well, always staying real as they take us from hilarity to sadness. Each of them shows a flexibility that is impressive as they veer from point to point in time and space and character. In one night of theatre I had some of my biggest laughs and destroyed a myriad of tissues with my crying. Now that's a play. The set (Cory Sincennes) and lighting (Scott Peters) seem simple at first, but there is much more there than first appears. For the lighting, it is about what is hidden in the shadows and what is shown in the light and for the set, it is about what is hidden behind those walls. Director Bradley Moss has worked well with all these brilliant components creating a piece that will make you laugh and break your heart and finally give you peace.
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