On paper, “Sit at the Bar” sure sounds like the setup for an off-color joke (“two lesbians and a Sith Lord walk into a bar”), but writer/director Casey Tregeagle has woven a surprising amount of heart in among the witty wordplay of this endearing (if somewhat uneven) original play. There are plenty of laughs large and small, particularly throughout the smartly paced first half, as the cast show off their sharp comic timing with a barrage of clever throwaway quips. Thompson is terrific as a pedantic over-talker, and she shares classic rom-com chemistry with Beaton; you’d root for them to end up together, if their characters weren’t both gay.
While it starts out lightly snarky, Tregeagle’s script grows darker and more disquieting as these male strangers dig into Bre’s emotional dishonesty, tossing buzzwords like "gaslighting" and "whataboutism" back and forth like hand grenades. The play’s energy drops noticeably around the midpoint, thanks to a pair of morose expository monologues from the men; and a heart-rending 11th-hour aria from the arresting A. Ali Flores as a grieving alcoholic almost threatens to tip the whole production into tear-jerker territory. Despite that late turn toward schmaltz sucking all the laughs out of the room, the likable cast of quirky characters kept me involved until the fade-out finale, which seems tailor-fit for a sitcom pilot.
If nothing else, “Sit at the Bar” demonstrates that queer audiences deserve hyperverbal romantic dramedies built around improbable plot contrivances just as much as straight people do — and I can’t think of anything more Fringe than that.
Orlando Fringe: Times and tickets for "Sit at the Bar"
