Betrayal and love fill world of '2 Lives'

"I'm never gonna die," Howard Thompson (James Sutorious) assures his lover of the past 35 years, 72 year-old playwright Matt Singer (Tom Aldredge). "Is that a promise?" asks Matt. "No, a threat."

In the world-premiere of theatre veteran Arthur Laurents' (author of the book of West Side Story and Gypsy as well as the screenplay The Way We Were) new play, 2 Lives, playing now through Saturday, Apr. 12 at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, death is a constant threat. In Laurents' play, however, it is not death that carries the gravest fear, but the thought of being left alive and alone.

2 Lives is a somewhat autobiographical tale, Laurents' own speculations on what would happen to him if he, like his fictitious counterpart Matt, were to survive his long-time lover and partner. Additionally, the play questions the relationship between intimacy and artistic productivity and examines the fundamental emotional placeholders of love, trust, and friendship.

The action occurs in a unit set: a private park which Howard has created for himself, Matt, and their friends (when invited). Such is the case on the day when the play's action begins. Howard and Matt's good friend Willi Thurman (Susan Kellermann), an actress, is coming up for a visit to celebrate both the opening of a new play of Matt's at a local theatre and Howard's 65th birthday.

Will has brought along her current object of sexual desire (though she refuses to openly admit this fact), champion of the British stage, Nerissa Grey (Cigdem Onat). Also joining Matt and Howard are Howard's Alzheimer's-plagued mother Eloyse Thompson (Elizabeth Wilson) and lucrative Hollywood producer, and current producer of another new play of Matt's set to make its Broadway debut soon, Leo Kondracki (Jeremiah Kissel). Completing the ensemble are Howard and Matt's groundskeeper Scooter Jenkins (Michael Kaye) and Scooter's wife Meryanne (Helen McElwain).

The intimate space of the Lyric Stage Company's stage provides the perfect home for a story so entrenched in intimacy. Three-quarters in the round, the audience assumes the role of voyeur, peeping in on the private world of the play's characters, eaves-dropping on their conversations with one another, seeing them exposed at their moments of great vulnerability. And vulnerable the characters are, as true motives are revealed, friendships are reduced to their potential for personal gain, and love and life become frighteningly fragile. Most dramatically, Matt's world is thrown into complete disarray as a result of Howard's untimely and unexpected death which marks the end of the play's first half.

In a play that exposes all that is precarious, solidarity is achieved through the actors' performances: 2 Lives is graced with an exceptionally talented cast. As Matt, the most cynical and the most fragile, Tom Aldredge aptly imbues his character with the fear that accompanies so many into old age. Despite his character's constant assertions that he is devastated, wrecked without Howard, Aldredge fills Matt with the necessary layer of subtext that shows that his fear runs much deeper than that of simply being without his muse and protector. Likewise striking in performance is Elizabeth Wilson as Howard's mother. Her Alzheimer's is not portrayed through easy over-exaggeration, but rather subtly shaded with intense and deliberate modes of characterization.

The rest of the cast is likewise solid, despite the fact that the script has given them characters submerged in absolutes. Howard, for example, is absolutely good; the personification, even, of good itself and portrayed accordingly by Sutorius, who as angelic in act one as he becomes quite literally in act two. Conversely, both Willi and Leo embody shades of that which is bad: an old friend who will disregard history for the sake of a fling's self-promoting goals, the stereotype of the producer who cares more about money than artistic integrity.

These extremes are perhaps the greatest weakness of the script and, therefore, of the production. Likewise, the play's moral comes across a little heavy-handed: good so good, bad so bad. Nonetheless, the world which Laurents creates and the story that he has to tell are well-worth venturing into. Amidst the lush set of the park (designed by James Noone) and the ethereal world of color created by costumer Theoni V. Aldredge (a two-time Tony Award winner for costume design), reality is allowed to be suspended, and in turn audience perceptions of behavioral and emotional verity.

"What we do is what we are," Nerissa consoles Matt, "Be grateful you have a gift." Boston audiences, in turn, should be grateful for Laurents' gift.

'2 Lives' runs through April 12 at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston. Tickets are $22 - $38; student rush seats are $17 and available a half-hour before each performance. Tickets can be purchased on-line at www.lyricstage.com or by phone 617-437-7172.