The Layover
Opening Night: August 25, 2016
Closing: September 18, 2016
Theater: Second Stage Theatre
Ever wonder who that stranger is sitting next to you? What is their story? What are they hiding? Shellie and Dex dare to answer these questions after their flight is delayed on a snowy Thanksgiving night. What they discover about themselves, and each other, sends both of their lives into upheaval. A psychological drama from the darkly funny writer of Bachelorette, The Layover asks the question: Can you ever really get to know somebody when you’re hiding so much yourself?
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August 25, 2016
Calling dialogue “slick” can seem like backhanded praise, code for facile gimmickry. But I use it for playwright Leslye Headland (Bachelorette) with genuine admiration and literalist precision: Her rapid-fire banter greases the skids for morally rudderless characters to crash into one another; it lubricates their descent into comic chaos. The scowling ghost of Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train) hovers over Headland’s neo-noir about obsession and guilt. It begins as innocent flirtation between Shellie (Annie Parisse) and Dex (Adam Rothenberg) as they wait for their plane to take off from Chicago’s O’Hare. She teaches American crime fiction; he’s an engineer. The flight is canceled, and one thing leads to another in the hotel—despite poorly timed phone calls from Dex’s high-maintenance fiancée (Amelia Workman).
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August 25, 2016
Has anyone ever enjoyed a layover? Either it is nerve-janglingly short or grindingly long. “The Layover,” a disappointing new play by Leslye Headland that opened on Thursday at Second Stage Theater, achieves the novel feat of being both at the same time. Running a little more than 90 minutes, it doesn’t succeed in bringing us deeply into the lives of its principal characters. And yet we don’t exactly leave pining for more of their company. Ms. Headland, whose comedy “Bachelorette” remains among the most scorchingly funny new plays I’ve reviewed, has muffled her comic verve almost completely in this play, although the dialogue occasionally crackles with sharp-elbowed exchanges. Instead she has written a dark drama about infidelity and its unforeseen consequences.
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