Title: You & Me: Six 10-minute Plays

Written by: Patrick B. McLean

Date saw the show: July 28, 2007
Place saw the show: Kansas City, Missouri, Fringe Festival
Company: Blame It On Productions

Director: Patrick B. McLean

4 Stars

Reviewed by: Deborah Ground Buckner

Blame It On Productions is a company of young performers, high school and college age. You & Me playwright and director Patrick B. McLean is currently a sophomore in college. But they have provided an energetic, humorous,and thoughtful set of vignettes.

Each of the six plays within You & Me is a story of a man and a woman. In each, the woman is the stronger of the two characters. “Once Again But Better” shows a man in a wheelchair with a broken leg (Tony Strauss), struggling to write. He is surrounded by stacks of reviews of his last play, proclaiming he is “a mere shadow of what he used to be.” Enter his significant other (Shannon Buhler) who spends the next several minutes trying to encourage him out of his writer's block. At one point of exasperation, she exclaims, “I can't believe how crazy you are!” He replies, “I'm a writer—it's part of the job description.” The surprise ending had most of the audience laughing. “A Regular Check Up” puts a man (Ned Abbott) in the doctor's office for a prostate examination only to discover his physician is a woman (Lydia Zacharias). Protesting as he learns what she is about to do, he receives the reply, “I can get one of our retired football players with knuckles the size of lemons to do this.”

“A Happy Divorce” shows a couple (Aubrie Piper and Dave Hoffman) meeting for dinner. They greet each other uncomfortably, finding conversation awkward until they announce simultaneously “I want a divorce.” The rest of the dinner has them talking non-stop, happily dividing their property and recalling the fun times they had together. It's unclear at the close of ten minutes whether they will have the happiest divorce on record or rush home and reignite their marriage. “An Itch to Scratch” presents a wife (Kyla Pitts) preparing for a romantic evening to celebrate the return of her husband (Brandon Jackson) after a two-month business trip. But he walks in the door and drops from exhaustion.

In “Planes, Pains, and Hypochondriacs,” a woman (Lesli Amos) find herself seated next to a man with enough phobias to make Adrian Monk look like a lightweight (Doug Wooldridge). Wooldridge deserves special mention for his wonderful portrayal of the nervous passenger. Finally, “Animal Instincts” shows a married couple (Ann Manly and Brook Partain) dealing with his embarrassing outdoor bathroom habits, a dialogue that is much funnier and sweeter than it would appear to be.

All six plays together provide a fun study of male-female relationships with happy, though sometimes unexpected, endings.