Lowcountry

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Lowcountry by Abby Rosebrock, author of Blue Ridge seen at Atlantic Theater Company in 2019, has a great deal going for it: a fine cast, a play told in real time, scenic design in keeping with the milieu and the plot, and characters quirky enough to keep us interested. However, this talky play doesn’t get where it is going until the last ten minutes and has a great many unanswered questions that perplex as one watches the play. While Jo Bonney’s production is strong on the characterizations, it is weak on pace so the plot seems to go on longer than it needs to and lacks tension until the very end. Ultimately, except for those last surprising minutes, the play eventually becomes tedious and in need of a few cuts – or new devices.

Set in Moncks Corner, a small town in the coastal area of South Carolina (known as the Lowcountry), when we are introduced to David he is on speaker phone in his shabby apartment with his sponsor Paul. We discover that David is a convicted sex offender who has been court-ordered to attend group therapy. He is also divorced and has lost the right to see his son Jacob all year. However, that may change in the fall if Paul signs off on his rehabilitation in September.

While we realize that Paul is very controlling and manipulative, David is lying to Paul about where he is: he is not on the street walking to meet a date for a picnic outdoors as he tells Paul. In fact, he is cooking and cleaning up to prepare to serve dinner to his date Tally in his apartment which is problematic. In his program he is only allowed to have sex with a spouse. As the curtain he has put up between his living room and bedroom area keeps falling down, he is also attempting to get it to stay up with no success.

When Tally arrives she is extremely cagey about herself and her life though she plies David with many questions. Having met on Tinder, it is obvious that she wanted to meet David for sex. She tells David that although she grew up here – as he did – she lives in Los Angeles where she works as a proofreader-editor, but has previously been an actress. She is home for a week helping her father to move. She admits to knowing about group therapy as she was in them for “garden-variety stuff and workplace stuff, workplace abuse wage-theft poverty blah blah blah” but does not get more specific.

The play becomes a kind of cat and mouse game in which Tally who appears to have a hidden agenda attempts to get David to give up on his current program. She also attempts to seduce him in various ways. However, the play has a great many unanswered questions: if David is not allowed to have sex except with a spouse then what is he doing on Tinder? When the subject of Tally’s acting career comes up, she changes the topic very fast – what is she hiding?  Did she have very small roles or was she appearing in porno films? When David finally gets around to revealing his crime, it seems to have been a miscarriage of justice in a state where the age of consent is 16 years old. Also Tally seems to know a great deal more about David than she is willing to reveal. Why is she really here?

As David, Babak Tafti is sympathetic as well as confused as to the turns his life has taken. He does not seem to have deserved his fate, although he appears to have made some very bad choices. Jodi Balfour, on the other hand, does as well as can be expected with an underwritten role – or rather one in which she is asked to play her cards so close to the vest that we learn little about her. She makes Tally quirky as she reveals only bits and pieces of her life at various times, always holding something back. We are never really sure where we are with her as she is either lying or hiding something. Keith Kupferer as the Paul we hear on the speaker phone is confident, power-hungry and assured. He gives David good advice but goes on a long time about it, seemingly wanting to stay in control. He is also a bit sadistic, always throwing up to David what he had done for him, always wanting thanks.

The design elements are in tune with Rosebrock’s vibes. Arnulfo Maldonado’s studio set with bedroom, living room and kitchen area with very few items aside from the Walgreens photographs of his son define David’s life. The lighting by Heather Gilbert beautifully slips from late afternoon to early evening through the windows that look on another apartment building, while David’s place lacks good lighting. Sarah Laux’s costumes are pitch-perfect for these people. Except for those last ten minutes, Jo Bonney’s direction seems languid and unhurried, though Lowcountry is not as complex or well-written as the author’s Blue Ridge which also deals with someone in a halfway house situation. It appears that this is the third of a trilogy which includes Wilma and The Voice of the Devil and might be much more effect played alongside it companion pieces.

Lowcountry (through July 13, 2025)

Atlantic Theater Company

Linda Gross Theater, 336 W. 20^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 646-452-2220 or visit http://www.atlantictheater.org

Running time: one hour and 45 minutes without an intermission