“One Time”… I saw a really good play

Sonia and Mason meet by chance, as the only people who show up at the first and last meeting of a book group. They’re in their 60s. They realize that 30-odd years prior, when they were both married to others, something passed between them.

What happened? We’ll, it’s all a little fuzzy, with the time involved, and alcohol and confused emotions. Sonia is reticent to revisit the episode; Mason is keen on it. He gets Sonia to agree to meet on a park bench every week to tell a story from the past. “One time” becomes their shorthand introduction to these tales, which must be true. Thus does Mason try to pry open the past, and thus does Sonia reluctantly help him.

In summary, the premise of Richard Lyons Conlon’s One Time, now in its inaugural run at Next Act Theatre, might sound stagey and contrived. But as practiced by Linda Stephens and Jonathan Gillard Daly, under David Cecsarini’s direction, it feels completely real and natural.

The naturalness rises not only from the subtle and exquisite acting and Conlon’s gift for character-specific language, but also from the structure of the play. Conlon drops us into the middle of the piece, with the not quite elderly characters treating their storytelling as a game of one-upmanship. You don’t worry about how they got there; you just listen to their engaging tales.

She tells of a particularly bad day in Catholic school when she was seven. He counters with the time he almost shot his best pal. He pushes for more information; she feints with hints. It’s all in good fun, and the stories Conlon confected for his characters amuse without fail.

Only gradually does the playwright reveal the story they care about most, a story Mason can barely remember but can’t wait to hear from Sonia. She can’t bring herself to tell it, even with the goading effect of their “One time…” game. They wind that mainspring through 105 minutes of ever more tense and fascinating dialog that leads to a satisfying resolution. Which I won’t give away here.

But I will say that Conlon has lots of fun with time and memory in a show that bears its seriousness lightly. He establishes a theatrical present at the outset amid autumn chill. We discover through their conversation that Sonia and Mason have been meeting like this for months. They tell tales from their childhoods and 35 years ago, so we have a sense of layered time, of stories clarifying if not creating the past and reshaping the present in the process. But Conlon changes it up in Act 2. Mike Van Dreser’s unassuming but perfect lighting and Elsa Hiltner’s unassuming but perfect costumes tell us that spring has sprung on Rick Rasmussen’s pleasant, stylized park.

It turns out to be the spring prior to Act 1. After dropping us in the middle of things, Conlon takes us back to the beginning. Aha! moments abound in Act 2, as the characters shed new light on our memories of Act 1.

Through their stories, each character must puzzle out the other’s life. Because of the dislocations in time, we must piece the story together much as they do. This makes One Time an exceptionally engaging intellectual exercise even as it touches and amuses us as an autumnal romantic comedy.

I saw One Time on Easter Sunday afternoon. The night before, I’d seen Othello at the Rep. Othello is gunfights, motorcycles, sex, epic betrayal, and it’s great theater. One Time is two people of a certain age talking. It’s great theater, too.

It’s all about telling good stories.

One Time runs through April 29 at Next Act, 233 S. Water St. For tickets and a complete performance calendar, visit the company’s website. Or call 414 278-0765.