By Max Baker
Directed by Sarah Norris
With Candy Buckley, Jeff Hayenga, Lisa Jill Anderson, and Ian Poake
Hal & Bee is a dark comedy about an aging hippie couple trying to hold on to their bohemian roots while dealing with the impending sale of their Upper West Side apartment building and the deadly familiarity of their own relationship. A play about love, addiction, and growing old

The evolution of relationships and the challenges of lifelong partnership are two themes that Max Baker explores in his refreshingly witty play Hal and Bee. Stable Lab Co. and New Light Theater Project tackle the thoughtful, comedic work with finesse in their 59E59 Theaters production, bringing sharp life to Baker’s colorful characters and giving the audience an intimate glimpse into their domestic world. The play opens with Hal (Jeff Hayenga) mindlessly flipping through evening TV and lamenting his stagnant life as a senior citizen in New York’s Upper West Side. An agoraphobic writer, Hal spends his days trying to reclaim his former glory as a published author but only manages to produce an obscure blog and smoke a steady stream of marijuana, to the dismay of his breadwinner wife, Bee (Candy Buckley). Bee has little patience for Hal’s juvenile habits and longs to escape the city grind by moving upstate and selling their rent-controlled apartment – a constant source of friction for the couple. The escalation of their daily arguments leads Hal to fantasize about ways to kill Bee in order to reclaim his freedom – but as we soon discover, he isn’t alone in his musings or in wrestling …Read more