"MESA" HAS HEARTFELT LAUGHS

By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com

 

Humanity is at the heart of “Mesa,” a cross-generational road trip of a play by Canadian playwright Doug Curtis, now playing at Invisible Theatre.

 

Back in 1998, when unemployed Paul (Kevin Black) is asked to drive his wife’s 93-year-old grandfather Bud (Jay Hornbacher) from Calgary to a retirement community in Mesa, Arizona, Paul sees it as a terrific way to get out of the house for awhile.

 

The play covers their five-day journey, a road trip of a different sort that takes them both to new places of enlightenment – even if they could have found still more by stretching a couple of hours further to reach Tucson.

 

But as every traveler knows, it is the journey not the destination that is most important.

Veteran director Harold Dixon, himself retired from the drama faculty at the University of Arizona, applies a knowing hand to the struggles of both men crammed into Bud’s car every morning for another lengthy day of driving.

 

This is a trip Bud has made every year since 1967. He knows every Interstate exit to every Denny’s on the route. Eating anywhere else is out of the question.

 

Paul had hopes for some side trips and sightseeing on those two-lane highways, extending the trip as long as possible. Bud isn’t having any of that. He’s got old pals to hook up with in Mesa.

 

Cantankerous humor fills this generous one-act as both men learn some valuable life-lessons. These are encouraging reminders to all ages that in the long run, being a member of the latest hip generation doesn’t mean much when there will be six or seven more hip generations of young people coming along right after you. Of course your generation was the hippest.

 

Grandfatherly Bud is just as convinced of that as is Paul. We all ultimately learn that what’s most important is not being cool but being strong.

For Bud, that means insisting on Denny’s.

 

Paul is basically the straight man in this duo. Black is on the UA theater faculty and plays Paul as a good-hearted guy who maybe hasn’t lived as decisively as he could. His marriage is in trouble and he is without a weekly paycheck.

 

Bud gets all the good lines. He is strong to the point of being stubborn, convinced that experience has taught him a heck of a lot.

 

Hornbacher gives the role plenty of energy and color. He has recently moved to Tucson from Minneapolis, bringing a finely honed talent the makes our city’s theater community richer.

 

We in the audience get to enjoy watching both men bump up against each other, trying to remember that because they are family (if not blood relatives) they should be a little more flexible. It isn’t always easy.

 

“Mesa” continues through Dec. 2 at Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave., with performances at 7:30 Wednesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays (plus Saturday, Nov. 24). Tickets are $28, with some discounts. For details and reservations, 520-882-9721, or www.invisibletheatre.com