Fate by Elizabeth Horsburgh

New York Theatre Wire 

by Martin Denton

March 4, 2000
www.nytheatre.com

Remember these names: Julia Barclay, Elizabeth Horsburgh, Elizabeth Rheinfrank: you'll be hearing them again and again in the future. They are among the new writers whose work is being featured in Kallisti, a festival of original one-act plays by women writers sponsored by an emerging nonprofit theatre company known as Screaming Venus. And what finds they turn out to be! Their works--respectively, Word to Your Mama, Fate, and Birds of Prey--are witty and intelligent and inventive; they're deliciously thought-provoking and dazzlingly entertaining; they demand to be seen.

The evening begins with Horsburgh's Fate. It lasts less than fifteen minutes, but this playful mystery-romance has more theatrical impact than half-a-dozen full-length thrillers and more honest-to-goodness laughs than a dozen full-length comedies. It begins with a woman, a man, and a letter. She is waiting on a street corner, holding the letter; he walks by, with a roll of toilet paper in his hand that he has just bought from the store. She importunes: is this letter yours? He denies it, but he's intrigued, especially after she shows it to him: it is, apparently, a stunning missive, one that instantly captivates the man's lonely poetic soul--much as it has obviously captivated hers. Soon they find themselves longing to be the writer and/or intended recipient of this golden document; and it's not long before they are in the throes of a chaotic romance. 

Fate is the sharpest writing I've come across in a long time; Horsburgh has done a masterful job sketching characters and defining situation with deft precision and economy. Both man and woman are presented as dreamy romantics whose egos are matched only by their imaginations: they are clearly made for each other, which inevitability makes this little love story all the more intoxicating. Under Jan E. Murphy's letter-perfect direction (pun intended; sorry!), Mick Hilgers and Erin Walls embody these two star-crossed loonies flawlessly. We never do find out who actually wrote the Fate-ful letter, of course: we'd feel cheated if we did. And anyway, Horsburgh says in her program bio that she's still trying to find out herself. 

THEATRE:
Camera Obscura Theatre, 341
West 44th Street
(between 8th and 9th Avenues)

OPENED: March 1, 2000
CLOSES: March 18, 2000
PERFORMANCE TIMES:
Wed - Sat at 8pm

RUNNING TIME:
approx. 1 hour, 30 minutes

TICKETS: $12

RESERVATIONS: 212-946-1159