Two people are trapped in an elevator at 59E59 Theaters with nothing to do but talk

Walter Mosley, best known for crime fiction novels such as Devil in a Blue Dress, has taken a stab at playwriting with Lift, now making its New York premiere in a Crossroads Theatre Company production at 59E59 Theaters. The play deals with what happens when two aspiring African-American professionals are trapped in an office-building elevator during a terrorist attack. Though the play does have a couple of unexpected revelations that you might expect from a Mosley work, this production, directed by Marshall Jones III, lumbers through two meandering acts before delivering a dramatic yet predictable ending. In a New York office building, Tina Pardon (MaameYaa Boafo) and Theodore Southmore (Biko Eisen-Martin), two African-American go-getters, meet by chance when he interrupts a conversation between Tina and her friend Noni (Shavonna Banks). Tina and Southmore then ride in an elevator with company boss Mr. Resterly (Martin Kushner), who nonchalantly opines his racist views of ethnic groups (and their place in the socioeconomic food chain) before exiting. Alone in the elevator, Tina and Southmore strike up a conversation when suddenly a terrorist attack damages the building and leaves them stranded. After a few desperate attempts to escape from the wobbly elevator, they talk about their diverse backgrounds and dreams, as well as Tina’s interracial relationship, until Southmore begins writhing on the floor because of what he calls a “condition.” When Tina learns the truth about Southmore, she is forced to do something morally abhorrent to save him while coming to terms with the implications of her own checkered past.