ANDREA PHOX
Tracie Lockwood, left, and Juliet Brett co-star in “Can’t Run Can’t Dance” at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, through Oct. 5.
Since starting NJArts.net in 2014, I have seen virtually every play presented by New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch. And “Can’t Run Can’t Dance,” which is running there through Oct. 5, may be the first one that could reasonably be described as Tarantino-esque. The four-character drama — written by veteran actor Gregg Henry and directed by his wife Lisa James — tells a seedy story of four multi-dimensional, believably human criminal associates, with dark humor, some tense physical confrontations, and some wild twists.
Also, as in Quentin Tarantino’s movies, the characters sometimes speak in meandering monologues that reveal more than they seem to, on the surface.
ANDREA PHOX
John Stout Adams, left, and Zachary Grant in “Can’t Run Can’t Dance.”
For instance … the play starts in a Washington State jail cell at Christmastime. “White Christmas” is playing on the radio as we meet one of the jailed characters, Squeak (Juliet Brett). “Tidings of comfort and joy, motherfuckers,” she begins, before continuing: “You know how every Christmas morning, you get a couple of presents and somehow the one you love the most, you end up breaking in about 15 minutes, just trying it out. A little test run and boom, it’s over. And crying never gets you another. It’s always, “That’ll teach you to take care of your stuff.’ ”
Squeak’s life, up to this point, seems to have been mainly about breaking and losing things. Though she looks young and innocent, she has lots of experience with jails, and has recently been homeless. She is talkative and anxious — “I get all twitchy in jail,” she says — and repeatedly shouts out her request to make a phone call to an offstage jail guard, with no response.
Her relatively laid-back friend Ingrid (Tracie Lockwood), meanwhile, is dealing with a hangover, and just wants to sleep. When Squeak’s motor-mouthed monologue finally wakes her up, she says, “You are in jail. It ain’t the end of the world. We’ll be out by noon. … this was a drunk tank night. That is it.”
They are waiting for Ingrid’s friend Ronnie (John Stout Adams), who has engaged Ingrid in a mysterious “business opportunity,” to bail them out. Ingrid has brought Squeak along for this dirty work — whatever it is — even though Ronnie has specifically instructed her to come alone.
ANDREA PHOX
Tracie Lockwood and Zachary Grant in “Can’t Run Can’t Dance.”
Once we meet him, it quickly becomes apparent that Ronnie is a real piece of work — a sexist jerk and a perennially unsuccessful crook who is on the run, it appears, from various authorities. He also has a paranoid streak.
“I got bookies, I got Coeur d’Alene cops, L.A.cops and the fucking Deep State on my ass — and I mean on my ass. They’re probably in the fucking kitchen right now,” he tells Ingrid and Squeak after he springs them from jail, and they stop at a diner.
While the first act takes place mostly in the jail and the diner, the second act finds them in Ronnie’s brother Ray’s isolated lair of a home, with Ronnie and Ingrid, who don’t seem to like each other very much, pretending to be engaged to be married. Like Ronnie, Ray tends to be nervous. There is a family bond there, but also a perpetual wariness that goes along, I guess, with a life of crime.
But this is no blissful family reunion. The outgoing Ronnie and the more awkward, defensive Ray never seem to be on the same page about anything — even trivial things. At one point, for instance, Ronnie tells Ray he’s going to cook some Christmas chili, like they used to have when they were growing up.
Ronnie: Remember?
Ray: I remember a lot of farting.
Ronnie: Yeah, it was off the hook. Love that chili.
Eventually it becomes clear what the caper, primarily organized by Ray, is all about; what secrets some characters are keeping from others; and who is betraying whom. One character’s computer-hacking savvy becomes a major factor.
There were some twists here that I definitely did not see coming, and an ending that was satisfying and surprisingly uplifting. Or, at least, about as uplifting as a play about four characters like this could be.
New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch will present “Can’t Run Can’t Dance” through Oct. 5. Visit njrep.org.
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