Lucid

MAID IN THE SHADE Kaplan embodies McEvilly’s totally original fantasy.

Photo: NK Mooneyham

In Lucid, Diamante’s sixth premiere of Fiorentino’s work, an angst-ridden graphic designer and soon-to-be-father creates his perfect world at night with lucid dreaming. In Peter Moore’s (McEvilly) fantasy, a beautiful woman (who can’t get pregnant and makes no demands) reassures him constantly that, yes, he’s an ingenious artist and, no, he owes nothing to anyone. Will Peter choose the fantasy, or will he grow up?

If Peter weren’t such a loathsome creature, we might be more inclined to root for his fairy tale. But between callously demanding a paternity test from his loving girlfriend (Shatkus) and renting a motel room to get dream-laid in peace, he’s a child in need of a slap. Kaplan, saddled with the Manic Pixie Dream Girl role, is full of warmth, even when parading around in a virginal white shift, eager for sex and clutching an apple.

At least Robert Shoquist’s set is elegant and substantive in its treatment of the line between reality and fantasy. With a revolving cubicle maze that economically embodies waking locales, Shoquist has created a world of endless hallways. Characters walking between rooms appear as though stepping from one province of Peter’s grubby imagination to the next. But visual invention can’t compensate for the two hours spent in such a shallow inner world.

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