Review: Summer Shorts: “The Sky and the Limit,” “Riverbed,” and “Sec. 310, Row D, Seats 5 and 6″

The Sky and the Limit starts out with a sickening CRUNCH sound. When the lights come up, we see George (Shane Patrick Kearns) sprawled flat on the ground, wincing and moaning in pain. He has just suffered a serious injury on a backpacking trip with his best friend Aldie (Alex Breaux). When Aldie catches up to him, he and George wait for the pain to subside so they can move on with their trip. The play starts out as a light, yet intelligent light buddy-comedy. But before we know it, The Sky and the Limit takes a very serious turn and becomes a hauntingly lovely exploration of the limits of friendship, love, life, and what we are truly able to see. The rough-and-ready George and the “classy” Aldie make an entertaining odd couple, and Breaux and Kearns are believable as both individuals and close friends. Allison Daugherty also has a poignant and sympathetic turn as Ruth, George’s girlfriend’s well-to-do mother. In Riverbed Adam and Megan (played by Adam Green and Miriam Silverman, respectively) suffer the tragic loss of their child, and try to cope with the loss in their own individual ways. The play is mostly structured as mental monologues — sometimes Adam and Megan meet, but for most of the play they remain in their own worlds. Out of the three one-acts of the evening, Riverbed took the fullest advantage of its theatrical medium, combining lighting, abstract blocking, poetic text, and a sound-scape to tell its story (Nick Moore, the sound designer/composer, deserves a shout-out for his work in all three of the one-acts).