Can good theater can come from ‘Bad Dates’?
Lora Adams has celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary and Patti Flaherty recently notched 27 years.
Needless to say, it’s been a long time since either of them has had a first date — but it’s an experience that they say sticks with them.
“We have long marriages in our real lives,” said Adams, who is in the one-woman show “Bad Dates,” produced by New Ground Theatre. “I certainly recall my first date, and some of the most appalling.
“I could tell you some stories.”
“I think everybody can,” said Flaherty, who’s directing the show. “It doesn’t matter if you’re 15 or 50, the feelings are the same. You’re excited about going out on a date, excited and anxious about if it will work out and you like each other. Those feelings connect with each other — they’re universal.”
“Bad Dates” opens March 22 and continues for two weekends. The one-woman show is written by Theresa Rebeck, and it chronicles a Texas native and single mother named Haley who’s living in New York and begins to play the dating game again. The stage is Haley’s bedroom, before and after each date.
“It’s a wonderful script, it really is,” Adams said. “It’s a comedy and it’s light, but it does have substance. It would have to, to keep your interest.”
Adams originally was scheduled to direct the show, with a professional actress friend of New Ground artistic director Chris Jansen playing Haley. When the friend had another commitment, the backup plan was arranged: Adams would move from director to actress with Flaherty directing.
Adams is a veteran of professional and community theater, and Flaherty has a lengthy list of credits as a director and actress. But “Bad Dates” is the first time either has been matched up with a one-person show.
“There’s no worries for me because I trust Lora,” Flaherty said. “But I imagine there are lots of worries for her because she’s got all the lines and no one to depend on.”
“There’s certainly an element of ‘Oh my gosh’ ” doing a one-person show, Adams said, “but it’s a sweet script, so that makes it more fun as you’re going through it. ... She’s a very sweet character.”
Adams said she hasn’t had the “actor’s nightmare” of being on stage and forgetting her lines. A corollary of the actor’s nightmare is being on stage in one’s underwear — which is all Adams has on in some of the date-preparation scenes.
“There’s always that for anyone,” she said of the actor’s nightmare. “I have my own issues when I’m on stage with anyone. You have to be there for the other person.
“The nice side of it is that if anything goes down the toilet, the only one who’ll know it will be me. My plan, of course, is that that will not be the case.”
The Haley character doesn’t talk directly to the audience, but does speak aloud to describe vividly each date.
“If anything, they’re eavesdropping on my musings about what’s going on,” Adams said.
“I kind of see the audience as her imaginary friend because she does talk directly to them a lot, but there’s nobody really there,” Flaherty said. “She’s carrying on a very, very long conversation with us.”
Both said the play relates to a sizable part of the audience, living vicariously through Haley.
“She feels like it’s time to jump back into the fray,” Adams said. “These are her initial dates — and she’s not a good picker, let’s put it that way.”
“There’s a reason it’s called ‘Bad Dates,’ ” Flaherty added.
“This has kind of a heart,” Adams said. “There are things that women will recognize in their own bad dates. That will be the kind of sympathy for the character because they’ve been there.”
David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.